Economic diversity has received growing attention in higher education, particularly at elite schools that haven't traditionally enrolled large numbers of low-income students. This table shows the percentage of fall 2005 undergraduates receiving federal Pell grants for low-income students during the 2005-2006 academic year at the top 25 schools in the U.S. News national universities rankings. 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 simply 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.
| School | Percentage of undergrads receiving Pell Grants |
|---|---|
| University of California–Los Angeles * | 37% |
| University of California–Berkeley * | 31% |
| Columbia University (NY) | 15% |
| Cornell University (NY) | 14% |
| Dartmouth College (NH) | 14% |
| California Institute of Technology | 13% |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 13% |
| University of Michigan–Ann Arbor * | 13% |
| Carnegie Mellon University (PA) | 12% |
| Emory University (GA) | 12% |
| Stanford University (CA) | 12% |
| Brown University (RI) | 11% |
| Harvard University (MA) | 11% |
| University of Chicago | 11% |
| University of Pennsylvania | 11% |
| Vanderbilt University (TN) | 11% |
| Georgetown University (DC) | 10% |
| Johns Hopkins University (MD) | 10% |
| Northwestern University (IL) | 10% |
| Duke University (NC) | 9% |
| Rice University (TX) | 9% |
| University of Notre Dame (IN) | 9% |
| Yale University (CT) | 9% |
| Princeton University (NJ) | 7% |
| University of Virginia * | 7% |
| Washington University in St. Louis | 6% |
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