INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WOWO): In a few years, student bodies at some major public universities could include more low-income and first-generation collegians.

That’s the goal of the University Innovation Alliance, a group of 11 schools joining forces. The Alliance’s goal is to help those students – whom numbers suggest don’t succeed as often as their peers from well-to-do backgrounds – graduate at a higher rate.

Purdue President Mitch Daniels, whose school is part of the group, says there’s data hiding in all the schools’ computers that can be better leveraged if it’s combined, rather than used as a way to out-recruit competing schools.

Daniels says low-income and first generation students don’t even apply to college at the same rate, for fear they’ll be turned down or be unable to afford the sticker price. He says schools need to do a better job communicating about financial aid, so those students give themselves at least the chance to be admitted.