Economic Diversity Rankings: UCLA and UCB lead the way

College Search & Selection
1

<p>USNWR has evaluated the record for Economic Diversity at the nation’s Top 25 National Universities. UCLA and UC Berkeley far outpace all other national universities.</p>

<p>As USNWR notes, “economic diversity has received growing attention in higher education, particularly at elite schools that haven't traditionally enrolled large numbers of low-income students or students from low-income families….The proportion of students on Pell grants, which are most often given to undergrads with family incomes under $20,000, isn't a perfect measure of an institution's efforts to achieve economic diversity: A college might enroll a large number of students just above the Pell cutoff, for instance, and percentages at public universities may reflect the wide variation from state to state in the number of qualified low-income students. Still, many experts say that Pell figures are the best available gauge of how many low-income undergrads there are on a given campus.”</p>

<p>Here is the NYT story on these rankings and the USWNR rankings for Economic Diversity among the USA’s Top 25 National Universities:</p>

<p>Poor</a> Students at Rich Colleges - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com</p>

<p>Rank , % of Pell Grantees , College ( USNWR Ranking )</p>

<p>1 , 35% , UCLA ( 24 )
2 , 32% , UC BERKELEY ( 21 )
3 , 17% , Columbia ( 8 )
4 , 16% , Southern Cal ( 26 )
5 , 15% , MIT ( 4 )
5 , 15% , Dartmouth ( 11 )
7 , 14% , Harvard ( 1 )
7 , 14% , Cornell ( 15 )
7 , 14% , Emory ( 17 )
10 , 13% , Stanford ( 4 )
10 , 13% , U Chicago ( 8 )
12 , 12% , Brown ( 16 )
12 , 12% , Vanderbilt ( 17 )
12 , 12% , Caltech ( 4 )
15 , 11% , Carnegie Mellon ( 22 )
15 , 11% , Rice ( 17 )
15 , 11% , U Penn ( 4 )
18 , 10% , Johns Hopkins ( 14 )
18 , 10% , Northwestern ( 12 )
18 , 10% , Duke ( 10 )
18 , 10% , Georgetown ( 23 )
18 , 10% , Princeton ( 1 )
18 , 10% , Yale ( 3 )
24 , 9% , Notre Dame ( 20 )
25 , 8% , U VIRGINIA ( 24 )
26 , 7% , Wash U ( 12 )</p>

2

<p>“Economic Diversity Among Top-Ranked Schools: Liberal Arts Colleges”
<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/liberal-arts-economic-diversity-among-top-ranked-schools[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/liberal-arts-economic-diversity-among-top-ranked-schools&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<ol>
<li>Smith College 26%</li>
<li>Mount Holyoke College 20% </li>
<li>Amherst College 18% </li>
<li>Bryn Mawr College 17% </li>
<li>Williams College 15%</li>
<li>Wellesley College 14%</li>
<li>Bowdoin College 13%</li>
<li>Pomona College 13%</li>
<li>Harvey Mudd College 13%</li>
<li>Grinnell College 12%</li>
<li>Wesleyan University 12%</li>
<li>Oberlin College 12%</li>
<li>Swarthmore College 12%</li>
<li>Haverford College 11%</li>
<li>Carleton College 11%</li>
<li>Hamilton College 11%</li>
<li>Claremont McKenna College 11%</li>
<li>Vassar College 11%</li>
<li>Colorado College 10%</li>
<li>Middlebury College 10%</li>
<li>Colgate University 9%</li>
<li>Scripps College 9%</li>
<li>Bates College 8%</li>
<li>Colby College 7%</li>
<li>Davidson College 7%</li>
<li>Washington and Lee University 4%</li>
</ol>

<p>The best liberal arts colleges are as socio-economically diverse as the top research universities.</p>

3

<p>I have a personal theory about why Pell Grant numbers are so high at Smith and other schools for women.
I’m guessing that many young women from single mother families feel more comfortable/safer at schools for women. The FAFSA, which determines whether or not a student gets a Pell Grant, considers only the custodial parent’s income in divorce cases. Smith, etc., will hit up non-custodial parents for money, but that doesn’t affect the student’s ability to qualify for Pell Grants. I can’t back this up empirically. Just a theory.
If true, the socio-economic status of students at Smith, etc., is more complex than the Pell numbers would suggest.
As for Berkeley and UCLA, aren’t we talking about Asian-Americans? Low income in the first American generation.
There is a special admissions program for low income students that many elite schools participate in called Questbridge. An admissions officer I know at the U of Chicago says that the applicants tend to be Asian-Americans who have a parent in a low level research position at a university, often because the parent’s credentials from Asia don’t translate well here. I’m sure, in the public mind, the program benefits folks from the ghetto and the barrio. This doesn’t tend to be the case, at least at the U of C.</p>