“I don’t doubt for one second that [WashU’s Pell-eligible] numbers would have improved as much if the New York Times had not blasted it as the worst in the country when it came to socioeconomic diversity,” James Murphy, deputy director of higher-education policy at Education Reform Now, said.  In 2014, the New York Times (NYT) […]

Like most historical moments, the move to adopt a need-blind system and improve WashU’s socioeconomic diversity numbers didn’t happen overnight.

Washington University received 33,634 applications to the class of 2025, marking a 20% increase from last cycle, with 4,374 total students admitted at an overall acceptance rate of 13%.

Washington University added 429 Pell Grant eligible students between 2015-16 and 2018-19, marking the ninth-highest growth of all 128 American Talent Initiative (ATI) institutions and surpassing the University’s 2015 goal to increase the amount of undergraduate Pell-eligible students to 13% by 2020, according to a new report from the ATI.

With tuition on the rise once again for the 2015-16 school year, Washington University administrators unveiled a new official commitment for increased socioeconomic diversity on campus, specifically through the acceptance and support of more Pell Grant-eligible students.

While the administration dragged its feet for many years coming up with a plan, it is encouraging to see the University making strides to improve this glaring blemish on its record. This marks the first time Wash. U. has set concrete goals, and it comes after The New York Times in consecutive summers publicly took the University to task for standing out among elite universities for its dearth of low-income students.

A WU/FUSED petition asks that Washington University bring its Pell Grant-eligible student percentage up to par with peer institutions by 2020, release information about different strategies for reaching that goal, increase support for students in St. Louis Public Schools to apply and attend, and increase financial aid to cover additional expenses.

Moving forward on hispledge to transform America into the most educated country in the world by 2020, President Barack Obama hopes to pump an additional $40 billion into the Pell Grant program over the next decade.