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To find out why elite colleges love legacies, two business school professors were granted access to 16 years of admissions data at one elite Northeastern college. The upshot: It’s in this school’s clear self-interest to take them. 

Alumni children who received offers enrolled at much higher rates. And these loyal families with multi-generational ties to the college were far more likely to donate funds, money that the school needs, in part, to offer scholarships to others.

Photo: Alex Wong

Though she applied to college more than 40 years ago, Frida Marte can clearly remember the details of the experience. But now, when Marte logs in to her portal on the Department of Education’s financial aid website, there’s no proof that she used the grant she remembers so clearly.

Marte is not alone. Other student loan borrowers who believe they used a Pell grant decades ago can’t find evidence of the grant on their student aid portal. They worry it means they won’t get the full debt cancellation they believe they’re entitled to receive.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has turned a critical eye toward higher education’s monetary ecosystem recently. This month, it scrutinized the deals colleges strike with banks. But it’s been investigating other aspects of the sector as well.

That follows a September publication about the companies that administer federal student loans. The document paints a picture of an industry where deceptive and abusive practices are common, and where borrowers may not get the debt relief to which they’re entitled.