BC has more students from the top 1 percent than the bottom 60
According to data from the New York Times
A recent New York Times article published data highlighting that “students at elite colleges are even richer than experts realized.” One in four of the richest students attend what is classified as an “elite” college like BC.
Boston College is one of 38 colleges that enrolls more students from the top 1 percent income range than the entire bottom 60 percent. Roughly 16 percent of BC students are members of the 1 percent.
Just over 15 percent of BC students are from families in the bottom 60 percent, and just over 7 percent are from the bottom 40 percent.
Table from New York Times
The New York Times noted that while colleges are more focused on financial aid and affordability than ever before, this does not necessarily help low-income families gain access to elite college educations.
As of 2013, the student bodies of elite colleges were not more economically diverse than in the recent past.
On average, lower and middle-income students end up earning almost the same amount of money as their wealthy classmates. The New York Times calls these patterns “troubling” because there are “many highly qualified lower-income students who do not attend selective colleges.”