The middle class is being pushed out of many colleges and higher end institutions, because of the great difficulty they experience in managing the large cost of college. Colleges should consider changing their approach to financial aid in order to accommodate the needs of more students.

The cost of college in the U.S. continues to increase over time while the average income, when adjusted for inflation, has practically stayed the same. As recorded by the Department of Numbers, the median income in 2005 was $56,122. In 2016, according to U.S.A. Today, the median income rose about 3 percent to $59,039. Meanwhile, college prices have been rising at a rate of about 7 percent for several decades, as published in Forbes, and the cost of education is over two and a half times the inflation rate. The middle class in particular struggles to keep up with these changes.

Paying college tuition might be one of the few instances in which low-income students have an advantage over the middle class, and one of the many in which wealthy students have an advantage over everyone. According to Brooke Prestidge, college and career counselor, lower middle class students might barely miss Pell Grants, federal aid given to qualified students who demonstrate financial need via the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). On top of that, they rarely receive grants from the schools themselves. As described by the Washington Post, colleges lure in low-income students with need-based financial aid and, in some instances, free rides. The same is done for affluent students but with merit-based scholarships. Merit aid used to allow colleges to keep the middle class on their campuses and still bring in tuition revenue, but as tuition prices continue to increase, it is being used more frequently to capture qualified high-income students in a merit scholarship bidding war amongst colleges. Colleges sometimes choose high-income students who meet the criteria for these scholarships over other candidates simply so that they can win them over to their school.

Essentially, the middle class makes too much to receive grants and substantial financial aid, but not enough to pay the remaining costs of college, and are forced to rely on merit scholarships which are instead given to students who can afford the full cost of attendance. On the occasion that a middle class student does receive merit-based aid, it probably still will not be enough to close the gap. As disclosed by Brookings, in 2010, 15 percent of all households in the lowest of annual income had outstanding student debt. The same was true for 16 percent of all households in the second fifth, 20 percent of all households in the middle group, 23 percent of all households in the fourth fifth, and 15 percent of the richest 10 percent. What this all means is that, at least in 2010, the middle class had a higher tendency to have outstanding student debt than either the lower or higher income households.

Because of these issues, college campuses tend to have far more lower and upper class students than middle class students, particularly on the lower end. This happened at Franklin and Marshall College and at other colleges and universities across the country in what is known as the “barbell effect,” according to Daniel Lugo, vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid at Franklin and Marshall, via the College Reporter.

This leaves many looking for a viable solution. By no means is this an argument for free college, as it is likely not a reasonable solution for the U.S. at the current time. Instead, a possible solution would be to significantly decrease or even remove merit-based aid, simply because it is too often used to draw in wealthy students, as opposed to its intended purpose of rewarding merit regardless of income. Some may argue against this because they believe the reward of academic prowess is that of merit scholarships, but the true reward is the attendance at the schools for which these talented students seek scholarships. If schools could focus on allocating their money to the students who actually need it, then more of these gifted individuals could attend without fear of overwhelming debt.

As reported by the Washington Post, Franklin and Marshall College, a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, actually employed this idea at their school and eliminated most merit aid beginning in 2008. This allowed the school to expand need-based grants, which not only increased the amount of low-income students on the campus, but also the amount of middle class students. Further, this enabled the school to focus on searching for highly qualified students as opposed to competing with other schools to offer the best merit aid to lure in affluent students. Because students who can’t afford to pay full price, they still get the money they need.

The current college system requires a lot of reformation. Until that happens, the various levels of income will continue to affect the ease with which some people from the middle class are able to afford college.