Geoff: A new study out today shows how college admissions practices benefit the richest applicants. Opportunity insights, a group of Harvard economists, analyzed data from 12 of the country's top colleges from 1999 to 2015. They found that among students with the same test scores, applicants with families in the top 1% of earners were 34% more likely to be accepted. Those from the top .1% were twice as likely to be accepted. And schools gave preference to legacies and student athletes, among others. Overall, one in six students at ivy league schools had parents in the highest income bracket. Raj chetty directs opportunity insights and co-authored the study and he joins me now. Based on your research, how are elite institutions giving it admissions advantage to students who come from wealthy families? Raj: What we are finding in the study, looking at detailed admissions data from many ivy league and other highly selective colleges, is that there are three key factors that lead to higher admission rates for kids with the very highest income rates. Families making more than $600,000 a year. First is legacy admissions, if your parents went to the college, you have a five or six fold higher chance of getting into the college. The exact same appellation credentials -- application credentials. Second, recruited athletes have a significant advantage of getting into these colleges and they tend to come primarily from very high income families. Third, we find that nonacademic credentials, things like extracurriculars or other activities, leadership traits outside the classroom, these credentials tend to be much stronger among kids with very high income families, and much stronger among kids who went to elite private high schools, which of course tend to be attended primarily from kids very high income families. Together, those three things explain why kids from the highest income families are about two times as likely to get in as kids for middle-class families. Geoff: There are certainly people who will hear this and think being wealthy affords all sorts of advantages in life. It stands to reason that would extend to college admissions. Why in your view should this research give people pause? Raj: What is surprising to us about the study is not simply that there are more high income kids than middle-class kids at these colleges. As you noted, we might expect that given there's advantages that kids from high income families have. Better schools, better neighborhoods, over many years. What is critical we are finding in this study is that's not enough to explain why you have one in six kids coming from the top 1% at our nation's top colleges. Even relative to all those benefits. You look at their sat scores at the point they are applying to college, 7% of kids with the highest sat scores are coming from families in the top 1%. But 16% of kids attending our nation's top five colleges are coming from families of the top 1%. That is telling us that even above and beyond the advantages they've had in childhood, kids from high income families are getting an additional boost in the admissions process. Geoff: Our team reached out to some of the elite universities mentioned in your study. A spokesperson from princeton university says the status is from 2015 and the share of low income students has changed since that. "The percentage of Pell eligible students at princeton has more than doubled since the first of the cohort chetty analyzed. Lower income students make up more than a fifth of the student body at princeton." What do you make of that and is it a mistake to look at this data from eight years ago as if it captures the current moment? Raj: That's a great point. We look at how things are changing over time as well. Princeton in particular has been a leader in admitting and recruiting more kids from lower income families. What we are finding in particular is it is the middle class that is being squeezed, that is missing from these colleges. In particular, if you look at admissions rates, they are lowest from kids and what you might think of as upper middle income families. Going to what you would think of good public schools, living in good neighborhoods, those kids have the lowest chances of going in. Lower than kids at the bottom end of the income distribution, and especially much lower than the kids at the very top, of the income distribution, many of whom are going to private schools and so on. That piece of it still persists today to the present point, and I think it is extremely important to think about that at princeton and other colleges. Geoff: If it is the kids from affluent families that are getting the advantages, and kids from the lower income families in some cases that are getting the attention from these schools that are focused on diversity, how should these universities make sure that their student bodies reflect economic diversity and include more middle-class families, as you mentioned? Raj: I think it comes back to thinking about the three factors we identified as driving the very high income admissions. Does it make sense to have legacy preferences? Does it make sense to be recruiting athletes in particular from the highest income families? Does it make sense to focus on nonacademic rentals -- credentials? When we follow these kids over time and look at their outcomes after college, you can ask is that the case that kids with a stronger credentials, extracurriculars and so on, maybe they are more qualified candidates? Maybe they are doing better 10 years after college and merit that they are admitted at higher rates. Actually we find when we look at a wide variety of outcomes, incomes, chances of working at a prestigious firm, going to a top graduate school, there is no evidence that the kids getting those admissions advantages are doing any better. One simple answer to your question is revisiting whether those make sense, possibly pulling back on them could allow more middle-class kids a shot at these opportunities. Another possibility is to take an affirmative approach and recognize kids coming from lesser resourced schools, maybe they reserve a boost as well. Geoff: Raj chetty, professor R of economics at Harvard university, thank you for being with us. Raj: My pleasure.
