In the fall of my senior year of high school, I received a package in the mail with a letter from president Mark Schlissel, claiming I would have a guaranteed full ride scholarship to the University of Michigan if I applied and was admitted. The letter, extremely vague and almost scam-like, claimed “my high academic achievement” qualified me to have all of my tuition paid for if I could get into the school. I was skeptical. How did the University even find me? Despite my doubt, I ended up deciding to apply to U Mich during the regular decision pool of Winter 2022.Â
Luckily for me, the letter I received months prior was not a scam. I was admitted to the University of Michigan with the privilege of having all of my tuition covered for all four years. What I didn’t know, however, were the immense implications of this so-called scholarship, and what made me a target of this letter in the first place.Â
A couple weeks ago, a guest lecturer came to speak in one of my classes about a targeted tuition study done to research the effects of full tuition scholarships on low-income student enrollment at U Mich. These full tuition scholarships were part of the Hail Scholarship Program, which randomly selected schools across Michigan to grant scholarships to high achieving, low-income students. According to the study, students who were offered the Hail Scholarship were more likely to attend the University of Michigan than students of similar backgrounds who did not receive the scholarship.
This study looked to understand the impact on guaranteeing scholarships to low income students, alleviating the burden of having to apply for financial aid. While the university does not offer the Hail Scholarship anymore since it was initiated for research purposes, the Go Blue Guarantee provides low income students the same opportunity to have all tuition covered if they apply for financial aid. Despite the university’s financial generosity to low income students, a gap in the enrollment rates between low and high income students still persists, with only about 3.6 percent of students here being in the bottom 20% of the income distribution versus 66% percent of students being in the top 20%.
This gap persists for a variety of reasons: applying to college takes up a considerable amount of time that low income students often don’t have, and applying to college can be daunting for first generation students who may lack information on the application process. Additionally, college historically has been an institution made for those privileged enough to attend, discouraging low income students from applying in the first place. Being in college as a low income student means being surrounded by wealth, which can be extremely daunting. Low income students often have other commitments outside of school like work or family responsibilities that make going to college more difficult.Â
While low income students face plenty of barriers in attending college, we still deserve space at the university and work just as hard, if not even harder, to be here. Being a low income student in college, especially at UMich, is incredibly difficult. From my own personal experience, I struggled greatly when I first arrived to Michigan. I constantly felt out of place and that I was not meant to be here. I was incredibly stressed my first semester of college from having to work so much in order to pay for my living expenses. For a while, I felt like I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. Fortunately enough for me, I met students with similar backgrounds as me who are now some of my closest friends! While at moments I do feel very different from other students who go to UMich, I am very lucky to be here. To any other low income students who are struggling here: even though we are low in number, we are still here regardless of our circumstances, and we deserve to be here just as much as everyone else. Our existence on this campus is representative of our resilience in the face of adversity.