To the Editor:
Stella Treas' comments about Pell Grant (The Dartmouth, March 8) funding are correct but incomplete. Yes, Pell Grants are a decent measure of low-income representation at tertiary educational institutions, and yes, their purchasing power is paltry compared to the cost of an Ivy League education. But the primary barrier between low-income students and top-tier institutions isn't financial aid but getting accepted in the first place.
Choose your mechanism: Lower-income students have to work instead of study, tend to have less-educated parents, and can't afford SAT prep. These and other constraints would sadly lead to under representation at top-tier schools even if cost of attendance were not an issue.
Finances may be more of a problem at institutions without Ivy League endowments, but certainly for the schools Treas mentions, financial barriers are more indirect than simply insufficient aid: Low-income students lack the funds and guidance necessary to undertake adequate college preparation.
