Colleges’ Climate for Low-income Students Shapes Academic Confidence
Some colleges put significant resources into recruiting and financially supporting low-income students. But how colleges describe those programs also matters, according to a new paper. If messages from a college suggest that it is "warm" toward students like them, the authors found, low-income students’ academic confidence and identification as high achievers are stronger than if the messages suggest that it is "chilly" — that the needs of students like them are ignored or overlooked. We talked with the paper’s lead author, Alexander S. Browman, about the research and what colleges can learn from it. The conversation with Mr. Browman, a doctoral candidate in psychology at Northwestern University, has been edited and condensed.