The University of Alabama and Michigan State University look pretty similar on paper.
Both are selective public research universities. Students enter with similar standardized test scores. And the proportions of low-income and underrepresented minority students on each campus are roughly the same.
Yet students who receive a Pell Grant to attend Michigan State are far more likely -- by 20 percentage points -- to graduate within six years compared to their counterparts at the University of Alabama flagship campus at Tuscaloosa, according to a report published Thursday by the Education Trust, an advocacy group for low-income students.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/24/pell-grant-recipients-lag-behind-peers-same-college-and-nationally-report-finds