Economic Diversity

The New York Times has a lengthy article about economic diversity - which is different than racial or ethnic diversity - at selective universities. The measure used is the proportion of freshmen on Pell Grants (in 2020-21). The article is a case study of Duke University which has a relatively low percentage of Pells (12%).* 

Also included is an interactive table in which you can look up a university by name and check its Pell ratio and other information. Six of the nine UC undergraduate campuses are sufficiently "selective" to be included. They are shown below with their Pell ratios:

UC-Irvine 39%

UC-Davis 30%

UC-Santa Barbara 28%

UC-Berkeley 25%

UC-San Diego 24%

UCLA 22%

It might be noted that UCLA's 22% is the same as Harvard's ratio. The table has a measure of "net price/mid income." It isn't exactly clear how that is defined. But Harvard's is listed as $500 and UCLA's is listed at $10,200. Of course, it is really tough to get into Harvard and its undergraduate class is much smaller than UCLA's. But the numbers suggest that with its much larger endowment and ability to redistribute tuition revenue, Harvard is able to give a free ride to lower-income folks. It should be noted, however, that UCLA's economic diversity relative to Harvard would likely be increases if transfers from community colleges were reflected in the numbers. 

In any event, economic diversity tends to receive less attention than other measures, but it is a key element in the presumed goal of providing a path to upward mobility.

You can use the interactive table by going to:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/07/magazine/college-access-index.html.

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*The Duke case study is at:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/07/magazine/duke-economic-diversity.html.