<p>I have been visiting Stanford and Berkeley this week and I have heard from many people that Stanford lacks diversity in terms of the family income of students.</p>
<p>I was wondering if this statement is outdated because as of 2008, Stanford upgraded their financial aid package.</p>
<p>At Stanford,
Students whose families make less than $60,000, pay no cost to attend.
Students whose families make less than $100,000 pay no tuition but still pay the other costs.
The vast majority of students receive financial aid.</p>
<p>It seems to me that every student (except maybe international students) should be able to afford an undergraduate Stanford education. </p>
<p>So is there in fact a lack of different income brackets students come from at Stanford? If so, then what is the reason and how does it affect the Stanford experience?</p>
<p>At most highly selective colleges, lower income students have less opportunity to go to good K-12 schools and are more likely to have to deal with problems caused by poverty that distract from producing a good record that is attractive to college admissions committees. Yes, some college admissions committees do favor students who overcame adversity, but many students do not, or at least not well enough to impress the college admissions committees (yes, a 3.5 UW GPA and 2100 SAT overcoming poverty may be impressive, but that level of grades and test score is unlikely to be sufficient to make the first cut at a super selective college like Stanford).</p>
<p>[Economic</a> Diversity Among the Top 25 Ranked Schools | Rankings | Top National Universities | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/economic-diversity-among-top-ranked-schools]Economic”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/economic-diversity-among-top-ranked-schools) indicates that 17% of Stanford undergraduates are on Pell Grants (whose eligibility is approximately the lower 30-40% of household income in the US). This is higher than most highly selective schools, but lower than UCLA and Berkeley.</p>