It has always been an important task for colleges and universities to provide financial aid tostudents from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, the current grading recognition criteria are still qualitative-based, so grading results vary among different evaluators, and there are often some deviations inthe grading results. In order to reduce the deviations , this paper introduces the analytic hierarchy process( AHP) to determine the target level, benchmark level and scheme level. Then, pairwise comparison isused to analyze the relationship between the factors, and the values of each control factor calculated. Fi-nally , a grading mechanism of recognizing students from disadvantaged backgrounds is built, which con·sidering both objective and subjective factors in the recognition process. The two-state (0, 1) is used toassign values to the variables in the model. The scores for each student can be quickly calculated and thegrading scale intuitively sorted based on quantitative evaluation , which is different from the previous qual.itative evaluation mechanisms. Therefore, it is effective and feasible to apply the AHP method to gradecollege students from disadvantaged backgrounds. It can greatly improve the validity and reliability of thegrading recognition mechanism.
