Heavy donors are already known by colleges.
Child of an alumnus or employee become known by colleges via the application form field.
Athletes are identified by the coaches.
These plus factor categories are upfront and clear.
“Detecting” low income from address, EC activities, and the contents of essays is misleading and may point more to saving habits: a fancy address may be that of the grandparents; pricy
activity could be just a favor from a neighbor vs. a wealthy unmotivated kid with lackluster activities; essays may not be on a subject revealing financial might or the applicant may be ashamed to reveal poverty.
Instead of AOs routinely playing a guessing game, looking for signs of low-income, it would be more dignified and comprehensive to have an applicant check an optional box (similar to “ethnicity” and “alumni”) to indicate low income - a verifiable self-reporting. Not every family eligible for low-income plus factor knows to look for, wants to be labeled by, or goes through services like QuestBridge.
Moreover, there is no way to identify who are at the neediest of the need spectrum: a family in loans for cars, horses, and boats may have the same disposable income as a welfare family owning nothing - the neediest one can get. Most of the applications having “signs” of low income are likely to be weighted the same, allowing AOs to recommend an applicant whose essay seemed more entertaining (https://nypost.com/2016/02/07/former-yale-admissions-officer-reveals-secrets-of-who-gets-in/ “Brilliance and stunts”) or wretched enough, while dismissing another applicant of the lowest income with a conventional essay.
Not scaling “low income” allows colleges to exclude the neediest. Dartmouth, for example, pays full tuition for anyone below 100K; so why stock up on the most plus factor-worthy applicants if you can bring in kids from 90K households as they are expected to be better-mannered, articulate, have finer prospects, and would blend well with the “not needy” top.
Please see Yale’s own article here: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2019/02/12/students-split-on-admissions-plus-factors/