An analysis of U.S. college admission practices has found that Ivy-Plus schools are more than twice as likely to accept students from high-income families compared to those from low or middle income families.
The non-technical research summary found that students from all of those family income groups had comparable SAT and ACT scores when they applied.
The Harvard University-based Opportunity Insights examination released new "college-level statistics" looking at parental income levels for 139 public and private colleges in the United States.
Ivy-Plus universities include well known names like Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, Yale, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania.
University ends legacy admissions after affirmative action ruling
Family members of alums of one Connecticut university will no longer be given a 'bump' in the selection process.
While the study found that SAT and ACT scores are highly predictive of success after college, the data showed that the factors related to the high-income selections were not associated with better post-college success.
The Opportunity Insights study found that students who attend an Ivy-Plus school over another public college have triple the chance of getting a job at a prestigious organization, and it increases the student's chances of making a salary in the top 1% "substantially."
Data also found that factors like extracurricular activities, the capacity for leadership and other personal traits came in as the next top factor that contributes to high-income families having their students admitted into Ivy-Plus institutions.
The research summary found that, "Even though they educate a small share of students overall and therefore cannot change rates of social mobility by themselves, Ivy-Plus colleges could meaningfully diversify the socioeconomic origins of society’s leaders by changing their admissions practices."
