Opinion
tuftsdaily.com
11 Friday, April 15, 2022
VIEWPOINT
The Class of 2026: More selective and diverse than ever
by Reya Kumar and Henry Murray Opinion Editor and Staff Writer
Two weeks ago, Tufts released information about the admitted students of Class of 2026. The selectivity and demographic diversity of the admitted students pool offers vital insight to Tufts’ future. Over the course of the last few years, we have seen application numbers rise and acceptance rates drop among colleges all over the United States, but Tufts, in particular, has exemplified these trends. This year, Tufts’ acceptance rate is in the single digits at 9%, the lowest ever recorded at Tufts, dropping from 11% last year. That 9% was taken from a record-breaking applicant pool of over 34,800 students, showing a 50% increase in applications since 2020. Closer inspection of this trend, coinciding with the pandemic, reveals that policies like virtual tours and optional test score submission which arose amid the pandemic are partially responsible for the increase. Tufts’ dean of admissions, JT Duck, noted that it is easier than ever for students to learn about colleges and apply to them because of new policies and new technology. Additionally, Tufts’ adept handling of the pandemic in comparison to other universities along with a test-optional admissions process may have also contributed to the increase in applications. In fact, 40% of admitted students chose not to submit test scores. While Duck wrote in an email to the Daily that he is encouraged by the fact that “some of the most significant growth in applications in recent years is coming from students who have been traditionally underrepresented at Tufts,” the increase in applications could be damaging to underprivileged students that are applying. A larger applicant pool drives down acceptance rates and makes colleges more selective, consequentially making it more challenging for students to set themselves apart from others. Prospective students
without access to certain extracurriculars or resources, such as college counseling, that others can utilize may find difficulty attracting attention in the admissions process. Additionally, with acceptance rates now in the single digits, which is often seen as a sign of prestige among selective institutions, Tufts may be seen as more elite. The acceptance rates of many similar institutions have been dropping as well, with Brown University and Rice University among those who hit record lows with the Class of 2026. We hope that, regardless of its perceived prestige, Tufts will find ways to responsibly navigate the changes in application pools to ensure equal opportunity for all. Despite these potential issues, the Class of 2026 admitted student pool is also historically diverse. This diversity stems from a historically diverse applicant pool, which included 52% students of color, with Black, Latinx, and multiracial applicant numbers showing the greatest increase. Geographic diversity has also increased, with 22% international applicants in addition to representation from every U.S. state and four U.S. territories. Additionally, a record 19% of the applicant pool is comprised of first-generation college students. Accordingly, the pool of admitted students is astonishingly diverse. Of admitted students, about 56% are students of color and 11% are international students representing 84 different citizenships. Last year, 50% of admitted students accepted offers from the university. In particular, the School of Engineering has shown a marked increase in diversity. This year’s admitted pool includes 55% women, which is the highest percentage on record. It also includes 13% Black students, an even higher representation compared to the 11% admitted to Tufts in general. This increase in historically underrepresented groups in engineering demonstrates how Tufts is moving toward
GRAPHIC BY ALIZA KIBEL a more diverse community throughout its schools and programs. The admission of first-generation college students at Tufts rose from last year’s 10% and now comprises 12% of the incoming student body. The Schuler Access Initiative has played an important role in encouraging first-generation students to join the Tufts community. The initiative will invest $500 million in a matching gift challenge across 20 universities over the next 10 years, including Tufts. The Schuler Foundation aims to fund scholarships for Pell Grant-eligible students as well as those with undocumented or DACA status. The mean household income of first-generation students tends to be lower than that of students whose parents attended college, making the Schuler Access Initiative an important change for first-generation students. Tufts’ test-optional program may have also made applying to Tufts more affordable for lower-income students given the high cost of taking standardized tests and send-
ing scores to various universities. These initiatives are vital, as private universities like Tufts may often feel out of reach for many qualified low-income students due to their high cost. Overall, the demographics of the admitted students pool show that the Class of 2026 will bring a variety of perspectives and experiences to the Tufts community. As Tufts admits a more diverse class each year, our community is enriched by new ideas and viewpoints. These students will join performance groups and clubs, play sports, take classes and write for the Daily, all the while sharing what they’ve learned from so many different places and backgrounds. Trends toward lower acceptance rates and higher diversity may change things at Tufts, but they won’t change what draws in so many students in the first place: Tufts’ welcoming and open atmosphere that focuses on collaboration and interdisciplinary studies. We are excited to see what new and unique ideas the Class of 2026 and other classes will bring to our campus.
EDITORIAL
Tufts admissions process favors wealthy applicants. That needs to change. Students have long expressed frustration over the university’s lack of budget transparency and its implications for admissions. The rate of Tufts’ students receiving financial aid has remained low and stagnant, hovering around 46% for the past five years, according to the university factbook. Tufts has long practiced “need-aware” admissions, meaning a students’ ability to pay is a factor when deciding whether or not they will be admitted. As such, the university should take steps to ensure Tufts is more accessible for lower-income students. “When evaluating an individual application for admission, we look at what an applicant presents to us based on their merits — academics and what they would bring to the campus community — without taking into account their financial status,” JT Duck, dean of admissions, wrote in an email to the Daily. “However, when assembling the class, we are forced to make some difficult decisions because our financial aid resources are finite.” Tufts is importantly taking steps to expand the financial aid budget and this year became an inaugural member of the Schuler Access Initiative, which, as Tufts raises financial aid money, “will match those gifts up to $25 million to support the enrollment of even more Pell Grant recipients and low-income students with undocumented or DACA status over the next ten years,” Duck said.
While we commend Tufts for its growth of the financial aid budget, there is more that can be done to promote equity. Many other nearby schools such as Amherst College, Wellesley College, Boston College and Bowdoin College have need-blind admissions policies, though these schools differ from Tufts in size and endowment. Even at George Washington University, which practices need-aware admissions and has a somewhat smaller endowment than Tufts, 65% of students receive financial aid compared to just 41% of Tufts students, as of 2020. “I do not foresee becoming need blind on the immediate horizon, but I am heartened that our aid budget continues to grow, allowing us to enroll students from an ever greater array of socioeconomic backgrounds,” Duck wrote. Tufts has cited budget constraints as the primary barrier against moving toward need-blind admissions. Indeed, only a select few schools, many with larger endowments than Tufts, are both need-blind and meet full demonstrated financial need without loans. Even so, there’s a lot more Tufts can do to combat elitism at the school. While Tufts may not currently be able to make the move to need-blind admission, the university must move to embrace a need-blind and full-need admissions strategy as a primary objective.
It’s also important to note just how much economic diversity Tufts lacks. A 2017 study by the New York Times, for example, found that Tufts had more students from the top 1% of the income scale than the bottom 60%. Tufts had the 10th-worst gap in economic inequality among the nearly 2,000 schools included in the study. It’s clear that drastic action is needed to promote economic diversity. Tufts expresses an unwavering commitment to make its campus accessible and accommodating for a diverse group of students. However, in maintaining a needaware model that considers the wealth of its student body, Tufts is failing to live up to these ideals. While we appreciate the challenges of growing the financial aid budget, Tufts must make equitable access a priority in admissions. With the lack of data on Tufts’ economic diversity, students are left to wonder just how much our need-aware admissions policies favor wealthier students. In 2018, Tufts published previously unavailable data on socioeconomic diversity but has yet to do so again. The data show that for the class of 2021, 75% of students came from the top 20% of income-earning families while only 3.8% came from the bottom 20%. These numbers make it clear that the Tufts admissions process worryingly favors wealthy students. Notably, data on economic diversity
— specifically, on family income levels — was absent from Tufts’ profile of the Class of 2026. We urge Tufts to make this data publicly available, especially given that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit low-income communities the hardest. A lack of transparency about Tufts’ spending makes it difficult to assess the university’s ability to give out financial aid to low-income students. While it is understandable that the COVID-19 pandemic demanded more spending from Tufts, the lack of transparency and glaring income inequality make it difficult to excuse need awareness even as a result of this particularly justifiable deficit. Tufts’ expansion presents an opportunity to make its actions reflect its ethos of equal opportunity. The difficult economic conditions of the late 2000s that ended Tufts’ needblind experiment have changed, but the admissions process at Tufts remains geared toward the acceptance of wealthier students. In the coming years, Tufts will likely find even more success in attracting applicants and has demonstrated its access to revenue in recent projects like the construction of the Joyce Cummings Center. With these resources, Tufts has the responsibility to expand low-income students’ access to higher education in elite institutions. With a record-low acceptance rate of 9% this year, Tufts’ incoming class should represent the most capable students, not the wealthiest.
