When you apply to Whitman College, one of the first things you notice isn’t the beautiful campus nor the courses offered, it’s the outrageous sticker price. As of the 2025-2026 school year, the cost of attendance for Whitman was marked at around $83,540 per year. Whitman claims to meet 100% of a student’s financial need, offering generous merit and need-based scholarships to reduce tuition costs. Roughly 96% of students receive financial aid. Still, even with tuition covered, the Whitman wealth disparity remains. Obviously, Whitman’s policy of meeting students’ financial needs for tuition is generous, but having your tuition covered does not erase all the ways wealth shapes students’ lives and opportunities. Many economic inequalities prevail throughout campus life from FLEX dollars to extracurricular opportunities like Greek life and unpaid internships. Although Whitman preaches equity, many opportunities remain inaccessible to lower-income students due to hidden financial barriers.
Last semester, I felt how this disparity affected me. Unfortunately, my FLEX dollars ran out a month before the semester ended. I immediately reached out to the financial aid office, but my plea was quickly rejected. For a month, I had to swipe my credit card for every meal. While you could argue this is a budgeting problem, there were students around me facing similar issues. The problem became clear when some students had access to extra food funds from their parents, but I had to turn to my credit card.
Whitman claims to meet 100% of your financial needs, yet when I reached out to the financial aid office, they responded that Meal Plan Two “is typically enough food for most students.” This is evidently false. Meal Plan Two is $2,390 FLEX dollars; a meal in Cleve costs around 10 to 12 dollars. Students are typically on campus for approximately 100 days during the spring semester, meaning Whitman assumes students can eat on $23.90 in FLEX dollars a day, which is enough for about two meals, but most students don’t have the caloric needs of a nine-year-old. Yet again, low-income students are at a disadvantage when it comes to food security.
This is not a personal problem; a fellow first-year student at Whitman described their growing anxieties regarding their FLEX money near the end of the semester.
However, Whitman allows students to transfer money to their account as Cash FLEX when they run low. But how would I get cash flex, with what cash? The cash I don’t have? The system obviously favors students with financial security. As you look closer, these hidden barriers are not as invisible as they seem.
The Whitman meal plans aren’t the only problem. There are many hidden financial barriers students face. For example, Greek life favors wealthier students, expecting students to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on membership fees and activities. Students miss out not only on the social aspects of Greek life but also on opportunities for leadership and professional experience. Many low-income students also face barriers to unpaid internships. While wealthier students have a financial safety net to lean on, low-income students have to sacrifice time they could be using to earn money. Often, these students are unable to pursue unpaid internships, further highlighting the inaccessibility of professional opportunities that would set them up for success. If a student wants to get involved, they are faced with yet another financial barrier.
According to The New York Times, the median family income of a Whitman student is $156,200 and 66% of students come from the top 20% of earners in America. Although this is commonly seen in liberal arts colleges, it highlights the distinct gap between the wealthy and the poor at Whitman.
Access without support is not equity. Whitman cannot claim to meet 100% of students’ financial needs while hidden barriers, from quietly rationing meals to skipping opportunities and watching wealth determine your involvement, eat away at low-income students’ opportunities. If Whitman is dedicated to inclusion, equity should not end at admission; it must address the invisible financial barriers embedded in campus life. Each student should have access to the same opportunities and not the creeping fear of falling behind due to their economic status. Equity isn’t about a financial aid package, but about the impact of students’ daily lived experiences.
