29. "Smart, Poor Kids are Applying to the Wrong Colleges"

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/03/undermatching_half_of_the_smartest_kids_from_low_income_households_don_t.html

Matthew Yglesias wrote an article to Slate on March 11, 2013. Ygkesias talks about how their is a big difference between wealthy and poor teens when applying to college. Every high school student, when trying to get into college, has to do several things such as filling out application, visit colleges, get letters of recommendation, write essays, and submit their grades along with test scores. Also every student has a "safety" college and a "reach" one. So in the end, students apply to a minimum of 4 schools, usually. However Stanford's economic department tells us that poor kids are different than the average one. Most high-achieving students who score in the top 10 percent come from wealthy families, 34 comes from the top quartile, 27 comes from the next quartile. High-income students usually apply to schools they know they will get into and also to reach schools, such as Harvard. However low-income students apply only to one school and it is below their level. Very few students apply to reach schools like the high-income students. What the low-income students do not realize is that most selective schools are looking for low-income students with strong test scores who live in the area of the school. Colleges don't seem to realize how many high-achieving low-income students they are missing. State governments could also help by targeting top-performing students who do not have a lot of money because each year only 10,000 to 20,000 high-achieving students do not go to a good college not because they can not afford it but because they do not realize they should apply as Yglesias mentioned.

The purpose of this article is to inform the readers how America can be missing out in great future delegates, lawyers  or doctors by not showing them that they can go to a great college even if they come from a poor family. The diction of the author is strong and very serious, as this is a serious topic and people need to take into consideration what is happening with America in the future. Yglesias makes it clear that this is not a subject to play around with. His thesis is strong along with his arguments. Yglesias did a good job on this topic and opening his readers eyes to what is going on right now when dealing with colleges.