Opportunity Beyond Affirmative Action: How Low-income and Working-class Black Male Achievers Access Highly Selective, High-cost Colleges and Universities

Abstract

Published research on college access, particularly at highly selective and high-cost private postsecondary institutions, focuses primarily on barriers for underrepresented student populations. Higher-education scholars and policy makers have been especially concerned in recent years about stagnant (and, in some instances, declining) rates of enrollment among Black male undergraduates. This article presents findings from two-tothree-hour individual interviews with Black undergraduate men who grew up in low-income and working-class families and later enrolled in one of eighteen predominantly White private postsecondary institutions. We describe the policies and programs that enabled these men to successfully navigate their way to and through these colleges and universities, and we then offer implications for higher-education policy.