"The road to a college education in America is paved with good grades and hard work. But it also takes money and knowing how to navigate a complex admissions route - two factors that have contributed to poor students' underrepresentation on many campuses," The Christian Science Monitor reports. "About 50 percent of low-income students enroll in college right after high school, compared with 80 percent of high-income students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That's a gap of 30 percentage points, a gap that over the past 30 years has fluctuated between 22 and 49 points. For low-income students with high achievement levels, the college attendance rate is higher - about 77 percent - but that's about the same rate as high-income students with much lower achievement scores, according the College Board, a nonprofit association in New York that tracks and promotes college attendance."