"Parents are often very aware of their child's desirability in the applicant pool," Miller says. "There is a very good sense that it's a buyer's market in college admissions these days."
Pinnock, winner of a $20,000 Coca-Cola scholarship, was offered free rides to Stetson and Florida A&M, in her home state of Florida.
Duke University, included in the short lists of many of the Harvard admits to the Class of 1997 interviewed, offers the Reginald Howard Memorial Scholarship to the top seven Black students admitted. The scholarship awards the students $6,000 per academic year, based on leadership and academic abilities.
Though Harvard offers only need-based financial aid and grants, Miller says it is Harvard's "generous financial aid program" that enables many minority students to enroll. Harvard offered $11 million of aid in direct grants to the incoming first-year class, of which three-fourths will be claimed, Miller says.
Although many of the Black admits interviewed received merit-based scholarships, all of those who applied for financial aid say their Harvard packages were within a couple thousand dollars of their other aid offers. But last year, almost 40 Black students who chose to decline a Harvard acceptance said they received better financial packages than Harvard offered by a margin of $10,000 or more.
Admissions and financial aid officers expressed frustration because they are handcuffed to overcome such differences by the restrictions of need-based aid. The financial aid office has limited discretion in boosting the packages of aid candidates, because aid packages are determined by the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J.
With limited funds, private institutions will encounter increasing difficulty in their pursuits of recruiting talented Black students, according to Timothy J. McDonough, assistant director for public affairs at the National Association of Private Colleges and Universities.
"Private colleges and universities want to maintain their record of diversity and in order to do that with less funds and without government support is difficult," McDonough says, adding the association--of which Harvard is a member--is lobbying Congress to boost federal aid to colleges through Pell Grants.
For now essentially, Harvard depends on prestige and reputation alone to keep up its numbers of Black students. Without offering free-rides, special perks, merit-based aid or better concentrating its recruitment efforts, Harvard has little bargaining leverage in the bidding war for highly qualified Black students.
"We have to build on what we have and we have to redouble our efforts," says Fitzsimmons. "We have reached the top percentage of talented African-Americans. We must continue our search efforts that will give us a leg up on our competition."
Harvard, however, will have to do more than expand its search efforts to maintain its commitments to attracting the most talented students in the world, because top Black students can no longer be lured with the conventional attraction of prestige.
As President Neil L. Rudenstine acknowledged last year, Harvard may have to attract merit-based scholarships to keep highly sought-after Black students. Harvard must realize that College admissions is now an issue of dollars and cents and, just as importantly, an issue of hustling to sell students on a campus that offers more than just the Harvard stamp of approval.
If one were to look at the news media...as a barometer of pressure that [Black] students face,... Black students are subject to significantly more.' ZAHEER R. ALI '94