Three ways to read a college

Mobility rate
Share of all students who start in the bottom income quintile and reach the top quintile as adults. The headline number — it rewards both access and outcomes.
Upward (success) rate
Of the students who came from the bottom quintile, the share who reach the top. How well the college lifts the low‑income students it does enroll.
Access
Share of students whose parents are in the bottom income quintile. Many elite schools post high success but low access — they admit few low‑income students.
Highest mobility rate
Bottom → top quintile
  1. Vaughn College Of Aeronautics And Technology · 16.4%
  2. CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College · 12.9%
  3. City College Of New York - CUNY · 11.7%
  4. CUNY Lehman College · 10.2%
  5. California State University, Los Angeles · 9.9%
  6. CUNY John Jay College Of Criminal Justice · 9.7%
  7. MCPHS University · 9.3%
  8. Pace University · 8.4%
  9. State University Of New York At Stony Brook · 8.4%
  10. New York City College Of Technology Of The City University Of New · 8.3%
Best upward rate
Lifts its low-income students
  1. Saint Louis College Of Pharmacy · 91.9%
  2. MCPHS University · 91.3%
  3. Albany College Of Pharmacy And Health Sciences · 85.2%
  4. California Maritime Academy · 85.0%
  5. Rose - Hulman Institute Of Technology · 78.2%
  6. Advanced Institute Of Hair Design · 77.9%
  7. Kettering University · 74.7%
  8. Harvey Mudd College · 74.3%
  9. Claremont Mckenna College · 68.3%
  10. Babson College · 68.2%
Broadest access
Most low-income students
  1. United Talmudical Seminary · 61.0%
  2. South Texas College · 52.4%
  3. Franklin Career Institute · 50.0%
  4. University Of Texas At Brownsville · 47.4%
  5. Southern Careers Institute · 47.1%
  6. Boricua College · 46.6%
  7. Moultrie Technical College · 46.4%
  8. International Career Development Center · 46.1%
  9. CUNY, Hostos Community College · 45.8%
  10. Mississippi Valley State University · 45.5%

The access gap at the top

At the most selective colleges, money still buys a seat

Opportunity Insights linked admissions records to tax data across the Ivy‑Plus. Holding scores constant, the richest families still get in at far higher rates — and the advantages that drive it don't make for stronger graduates.

At the same SAT/ACT score, children from top‑1% families are twice as likely to attend an Ivy‑Plus college as middle‑class kids with identical scores.
About two‑thirds of that gap comes from admissions advantages — legacy preferences, athlete recruiting, and non‑academic ratings — not from scores or essays.
0
Those same tip factors (legacy, athlete, non‑academic) don't predict post‑college success — so they tilt access without improving outcomes.

…and the elite‑college premium is real once you're in:

+60%
Attending an Ivy‑Plus (vs. a flagship state school) raises a student's chance of reaching the top 1% of earnings by about 60%.
≈2×
It roughly doubles the odds of attending an elite graduate school.
≈3×
And roughly triples the odds of working at a prestigious firm.

Source: Chetty, Deming & Friedman, "Diversifying Society's Leaders? The Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges" (2023). Paper ↗ The mobility tables above show the flip side: which colleges already move low‑income students up.

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