Matt Diemer speaks with MLive about the difference messaging can make when it comes to college enrollment for low-income students
Although the number of Michigan students eligible for Pell Grants has fallen in recent years, low-income student enrollment at U-M has grown.
According to data compiled by Michigan Independent Colleges & Universities, the number of Michigan college students eligible for federal Pell Grants, which go largely to students from low-income families, fell by 52 percent between 2011 and 2021.
MLive reports that the number of college students in Michigan has plummeted over the last decade or so, and the numbers of low-income students and Black students have fallen much faster. Despite this trend, the number of Pell Grant recipients enrolled at U-M’s Ann Arbor campus jumped by nearly 30 percent between 2016 and 2021.
“It’s likely that the Go Blue Guarantee contributed to that,” writes Matthew Miller for MLive. “The program, announced in the summer of 2017, offers free tuition to students from families making $75,000 a year or less.”
Matt Diemer, who has studied how students make choices about college, says: “That kind of messaging really helps families who are more economically precarious figure out whether it makes sense to go [to college].”
If not “free,” the state of Michigan hopes that “cheaper” will be a clear and compelling message as well. The Michigan Achievement Scholarship, announced earlier this year, is set up so that the vast majority of undergraduates in the state will be eligible. The scholarship will pay up to $5,500 a year for a public university, $4,000 a year for a private college, and $2,750 for a community college.
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