A new report found that colleges and universities that are members of the American Talent Initiative enrolled nearly 75,000 more Pell Grant students in 2024 than in 2015, marking substantial gains in postsecondary access for lower-income, high-achieving students.
Launched in 2016, the American Talent Initiative is a Bloomberg Philanthropies–supported collaboration between the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, Ithaka S+R and about 140 colleges and universities nationwide. ATI’s goal is to help more high-achieving students from lower-income backgrounds enroll in and graduate from some of the nation’s most successful institutions.
Tania LaViolet, director of research and innovation at the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, said some of the increase between 2023 and 2024 is due to federal policy that expanded Pell Grant eligibility to low- and middle-income students.
After adjusting for those policy changes using the National Student Clearinghouse’s neighborhood income data, she estimated that ATI members would still have added nearly 40,000 lower-income students since 2015 thanks to a groupwide effort to improve the share of Pell recipients on their campuses. This includes roughly 18,000 students from low- and middle-income neighborhoods between 2023 and 2024.
“This is a conservative estimate,” said LaViolet, who serves as a co-lead for the American Talent Initiative. “By and large, the Pell figure is higher than the number of students from low- and middle-income neighborhoods, suggesting that many Pell students who enroll at ATI institutions come from higher-income neighborhoods.”
“Which makes sense, given K–12 research on high-achieving, low-income students,” she added, noting that these students often have more resources and greater access to rigorous coursework.
Between 2023 and 2024, transfer students accounted for the largest share of Pell enrollment gains at more than 20 percent of the 18,000, compared with about 16 percent for continuing students and about 15 percent for first-time, full-time students.
Josh Wyner, executive director of the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, said the larger share of transfer students suggests that demographic shifts have prompted colleges and universities to seek additional pipelines to meet their enrollment goals.
“Colleges have experienced two waves of growth—the baby boom and the baby boom echo—when there were lots of high school graduates to fill their classes,” Wyner said. “I believe that, in many cases, they didn’t know how many talented students at the top of these classes came from lower-income backgrounds, because they didn’t have to.”
“I do think awareness has grown,” he added. “It’s not a huge number, but it is a significant change.”
Signs of progress: LaViolet said the pandemic drove a “mass exodus” of lower-income students, both at ATI institutions and across higher ed, contributing to a drop in Pell enrollment from 2019 to 2022.
To address this, the American Talent Initiative set institution-level goals for lower-income student enrollment. Institutions with less than 15 percent Pell enrollment committed to raise it to 15 percent to 20 percent. Those already at 15 percent aimed for 20 percent, while institutions at 20 percent focused on sustaining that level of enrollment, LaViolet said.
“That individual institutional commitment, made at the presidential level, made a tremendous difference,” she added. “They had to commit to very specific strategies and plans to deliver on these goals.”
As a result, LaViolet said, she has seen tremendous gains in community college transfer enrollment, major investments in financial aid and sustained efforts to support student success throughout the college experience.
Wyner added that the specificity of the institution-level framework was key to driving these outcomes.
“That framework sharpened the focus of colleges that, frankly, might not have made as much progress as others and were concerned about regaining enrollment after the pandemic,” Wyner said.
Sustaining success: Wyner said budget cuts pose one of the biggest risks to sustaining momentum in enrolling lower-income students. He pointed to recent reductions in federal research grants, visa restrictions on international students and cuts to TRIO programs that support college access for low-income individuals, first-generation college students and students with disabilities.
“The fact of the matter is that revenue from many quarters has been diminished,” Wyner said. “Student financial aid is an expenditure, and colleges are going to have to make choices about which expenditures to maintain or increase over time.”
He added that rising costs for health care and other public benefits could strain state budgets already facing deficits.
“Students may need even more financial aid as health-care costs and other costs go up with less government support,” Wyner said, noting that it’s critical for college presidents to partner and share strategies.
LaViolet agreed, adding that “public confidence” in higher education also poses a risk to continuing to enroll lower-income students.
“One reason confidence and trust is low is the sense that higher education, especially at ATI schools, is out of reach,” LaViolet said.
“Substantial progress has been made to make education both accessible and affordable for highly talented low- and middle-income students,” she added, noting that cuts to financial aid could reinforce public concerns about postsecondary access.
LaViolet pointed to the University of Michigan’s Go Blue Guarantee program, which provides free or reduced undergraduate tuition for qualifying in-state residents, as an example of how clear cost programs paired with financial aid can drive major increases in applications and enrollment among lower-income students.
Ultimately, LaViolet emphasized, progress is possible in enrolling lower-income students, even under the most challenging circumstances.
“ATI members made a recovery—a rebound after COVID, one of the most challenging periods in higher education,” LaViolet said. “In the next phase of ATI, we hope to take everything we’ve learned … to sustain the progress we’ve made and, where possible, achieve even more.”
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