Simpson College Needs More Low-Income Freshmen, So It's Offering Them Free Tuition

Simpson College officials recently discovered a disturbing trend in the school's enrollment: The private college was attracting fewer and fewer students from low- to moderate-income families. Historically, up to 40 percent of freshman students were from families in the lower half of the household income spectrum, officials said. But this school year, that number had shrunk to 25 percent.  So on Monday, college officials announced the Simpson Promise, which will cover the full tuition for Iowans who graduate from high school in May 2018 and enroll at Simpson — if their families had an adjusted gross income of $60,000 or less in 2016.