Diversity Journal Club — April, 6, 2023

Money Matters: "Income Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility Across Colleges in the United States"

Deb, Kaz, and Karina will present a study using publicly available tax data to understand how income plays a factor in higher education representation.

Key findings

1. Low– and middle-income students attend selective schools at lower rates than their peers from richer families, even when comparing students with the same test scores.
2. The middle class is heavily under-represented at elite private colleges relative to others with the same test scores, but children from the lowest-income families are not.
3. If low-income students were given a preference in the application and admissions process similar to that given to children of alumni at elite private colleges, the fraction of low-income students would be similar across colleges.
4. Increasing the representation of low- and middle-income students at selective colleges could substantially increase inter-generational income mobility in the United States.

Links:

• Core Literature: https://opportunityinsights.org/paper/undermatching/
• Summary: https://opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/undermatch_summary.pdf

• SES Indicators for OSU (as an example): https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/the-ohio-state-university