Low-income students continue to face increasing difficulties with getting into college and having the resources to complete a degree, according to new research conducted at the University of Wisconsin. Patrizio Piraino and Matthew Steinberg, researchers from the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, have been dissecting the factors contributing to the decline in enrollment of lower-income students. Piraino, a visiting scholar from the University of Siena, Italy, and Steinberg, graduate assistant in the La Follette School of Public Affairs, presented their findings at an open lecture and discussion Friday to faculty, staff and administrators from universities across the state. The study investigated if students applying and being accepted into the university have economically changed over the past 30 years. Experts looked at nearly 500,000 applicants and investigated low-income statistics by tracking the income levels of UW students from the 1970s to 2006. But after the study, Piraino and Steinberg said the findings were troubling. "There are less enrolled from the lower financial quartile now than in the 1970s, and more of the top quartile than in the past, increasing the gap between the two groups," Patrizio said. "It is becoming more difficult for the poor to access that education [and] to get the same opportunities." Part of the reason, Steinberg said, is due to an astronomical jump in the cost of higher education in the past 30 years. "Tuition has increased by 126 percent from 1984 to 2004," Steinberg said. "Resident freshmen who came [to UW] in 2003-04 and will graduate this spring experienced a 31 percent increase in tuition and fees in just four years." Steinberg said the number of Pell Grants — a federal grant for low-income undergraduate students — compares low- and high-income student populations at universities. The research looked at the amount of Pell aid given out at universities across the country and found 43 percent of other public research universities allocate more Pell Grants than UW. The research cited a variety of factors that reduce the number of Pell Grants available at UW, including enrollment numbers and higher median SAT scores. "The chase for rankings in top university polls also plays a part in these factors," Steinberg said. While higher SAT scores bring up rankings, the selectivity often pinches out lower-income students, Steinberg added. He also said SAT scores strongly correlate with income levels, creating difficulties for students with low incomes and fewer opportunities prior to college to compete with their higher-income counterparts. UW economics professor Robert Haveman said in today's world, a college degree does matter, adding there are more benefits to attending a university than the average high school senior might suppose. "The payoff of education is increasing over time," Haveman said. "Gains of going to college, taking into account the costs of that education, amount to about $282,000 over a lifetime." Haveman developed a "Payback Calculator" which computes differences in monetary gains over a lifetime depending on individual characteristics. Piraino and Steinberg said they will continue their research to better assist students in preparing financially for a college education.