New Study Investigates Why Elite Colleges Favor Rich Kids

America’s most elite colleges serve as gateways to positions of wealth and power. The twelve most prestigious private schools (the Ivy League plus the University of Chicago, Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Duke University), represent just 0.8% of college students. However, graduates of the so-called “Ivy-Plus” universities make up 13% of the highest earners and 12% of Fortune 500 CEOs. Ivy-Plus alumni are also overrepresented among prestige positions such as U.S. Senators and New York Times
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journalists.

It is concerning, then, that students who grow up in wealthy families are more likely to attend Ivy-Plus schools, even after taking academic qualifications into account. Among middle-class high school students who score at the 99^th percentile on the SAT or ACT, roughly 10% attend an Ivy-Plus university. But among ultrarich students with identical test scores, nearly half attend one of the twelve most elite schools.