Giving Compass' Take:

• Meredith Kolodner shares how Grand Rapids Community College is making laptops available to students for free to help those who can't afford their own computer complete their coursework. 

• How can donors best identify and supply the needs of disadvantaged college students? What other methods have already been proven successful?

• Find out what MDRC learned from 15 years of postsecondary research.

Surviving college without a laptop is not easy; most students are asked to submit homework, revise papers and follow course readings online. Faculty members at Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan noticed that some students who couldn’t afford a laptop were struggling to keep up.

Giving computers to every student in need was deemed too costly. Instead, the college invested $35,000 in a vending machine that allows them to check out laptops free. Students swipe their ID cards, slide a laptop out of a slot and return it when they’re done.

From October, when the 12-laptop machine was installed, to April, the computers were checked out 530 times, even though the machine was tucked away in a fairly low-traffic area. College officials said about 57 percent of the students who used the laptops had federal Pell grants, which usually go to those with family incomes below $40,000.

When donors heard how successful the experiment had been, they pledged enough money to buy two more machines, which were scheduled to arrive in the fall.

Read the full article about low-income college students by Meredith Kolodner at The Hechinger Report.