Economic Diversity National Liberal Arts Colleges
Economic diversity has received growing attention in higher education, particularly at elite schools that haven't traditionally enrolled large numbers of low-income students or students from low-income families. This table shows the percentage of undergraduates receiving federal Pell grants for low-income students.
The proportion of students on Pell grants, which are most often given to undergrads with family incomes under $20,000, isn't a perfect measure of an institution's efforts to achieve economic diversity: A college might enroll a large number of students just above the Pell cutoff, for instance, and percentages at public universities may reflect the wide variation from state to state in the number of qualified low-income students.
Still, many experts say that Pell figures are the best available gauge of how many low-income undergrads there are on a given campus. Pell grant percentages were calculated using 2010-2011 school year data on the number of Pell grant recipients at each school collected by the U.S. Department of Education and given to U.S. News and fall 2010 total undergraduate enrollment collected from the colleges themselves by U.S. News.
| Save | School | Percent of undergraduates receiving Pell grants: |
|---|---|---|
|
Coe College
Cedar Rapids, IA |
28% | |
|
Drew University
Madison, NJ |
28% | |
|
McDaniel College
Westminster, MD |
28% | |
|
Austin College
Sherman, TX |
28% | |
|
Wabash College
Crawfordsville, IN |
28% | |
|
Earlham College
Richmond, IN |
28% | |
|
Allegheny College
Meadville, PA |
27% | |
|
Concordia College–Moorhead
Moorhead, MN |
27% | |
|
Marymount Manhattan College
New York, NY |
27% | |
|
Soka University of America
Aliso Viejo, CA |
27% | |
|
Smith College
Northampton, MA |
27% | |
|
Southwestern University
Georgetown, TX |
26% | |
|
Knox College
Galesburg, IL |
26% | |
|
Transylvania University
Lexington, KY |
26% | |
|
Bryn Athyn College of the New Church
Bryn Athyn, PA |
26% | |
|
Calvin College
Grand Rapids, MI |
26% | |
|
Willamette University
Salem, OR |
26% | |
|
Washington and Jefferson College
Washington, PA |
26% | |
|
Wittenberg University
Springfield, OH |
26% | |
|
Albion College
Albion, MI |
26% | |
|
Randolph-Macon College
Ashland, VA |
25% | |
|
Presbyterian College
Clinton, SC |
24% | |
|
Gordon College
Wenham, MA |
24% | |
|
Birmingham-Southern College
Birmingham, AL |
24% | |
|
St. Norbert College
De Pere, WI |
24% | |
|
Mount Holyoke College
South Hadley, MA |
24% | |
|
Bennington College
Bennington, VT |
24% | |
|
St. Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN |
24% | |
|
Occidental College
Los Angeles, CA |
24% | |
|
Gustavus Adolphus College
St. Peter, MN |
24% | |
|
College of St. Benedict
St. Joseph, MN |
24% | |
|
Roanoke College
Salem, VA |
24% | |
|
Ohio Wesleyan University
Delaware, OH |
24% | |
|
Susquehanna University
Selinsgrove, PA |
23% | |
|
Millsaps College
Jackson, MS |
23% | |
|
Beloit College
Beloit, WI |
23% | |
|
Hope College
Holland, MI |
23% | |
|
Vassar College
Poughkeepsie, NY |
23% | |
|
University of Puget Sound
Tacoma, WA |
23% | |
|
Sweet Briar College
Sweet Briar, VA |
23% | |
|
Siena College
Loudonville, NY |
23% | |
|
Hampshire College
Amherst, MA |
23% | |
|
Wheaton College
Norton, MA |
22% | |
|
Goucher College
Baltimore, MD |
22% | |
|
Juniata College
Huntingdon, PA |
22% | |
|
Ursinus College
Collegeville, PA |
22% | |
|
Lawrence University
Appleton, WI |
22% | |
|
Amherst College
Amherst, MA |
22% | |
|
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr, PA |
22% | |
|
Grinnell College
Grinnell, IA |
21% |
