paucity ˈpȯ-sə-tē noun
: an insufficient quantity or number
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The word paucity has appeared in 54 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Feb. 12 in “A Simple Way to Equalize the Ivies? Give Others the Legacy SAT Bonus” by Dana Goldstein and Anemona Hartocollis:
A new paper from a team of prominent economists says that a simple strategy — an SAT “bonus” of 64 to 160 points, like that effectively seen in legacy admissions — would go a long way toward decreasing economic segregation in American higher education, and give a boost to social mobility through the generations.
… The 6.2 million people included in the study are approaching 40 years old, but Professor Friedman said the findings remain relevant, given the continued paucity of low-income students at highly selective colleges. At Ivy Plus institutions, there have been more students from families in the top 1 percent of earners than students from the entire bottom half of the income distribution.
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