Study: Univ. of California schools do the most for low-income students

The New York Times’ Upshot blog this month placed University of California schools at the top of its ranking for colleges that do the most for low-income students.

Of the top seven schools on the list, UC schools occupied six of the spots, with the University of California-Irvine taking the No. 1 spot, and the Berkeley campus at No. 7.

The University of California “is struggling with budget woes that have deeply affected campus life. Yet the system’s nine colleges still lead the nation in providing top-flight college education to the masses,” said Upshot editor David Leonhardt on the site.

Kate Moser, a spokesperson for UC, told USA TODAY that the ranking is notable in part because UC schools are public, and so don’t have the large endowments associated with Ivy League schools.

“The New York Times noted that five of the UC campuses alone enroll more low-income students than all Ivy League institutions combined,” she says.

The Upshot’s College Access Index measures how easy it is for students to be able to attend each school. Among other things the ranking is based on the share of students that received a Federal Pell Grant, the graduation rate and the price colleges charge both low- and middle-income students.

At the NYT’s 2015 Schools for Tomorrow Conference Leonhardt announced the findings of the report and commented on the economic diversity at UC, partly crediting their high placement to the amount of students who are children of immigrants.

“The University of California was set up specifically to be a place that would educate the masses. They accept vastly more community college transfers than other flagship state universities. Community college is often where low-income kids start,” he said. “Most of California’s success here really (does) have lessons for the rest of the country.”

With 40% of students at UC-Irvine receiving a Pell Grant, the school had a 1.91 College Access Index.

Meghana Vijayraghavan, a junior biology major at UC Santa Barbara, which ranked third on the list, says she recognizes the effect of UC’s efforts on campus.

“I love that students from all types of socio-economic backgrounds are able to study at the UC’s. Money should not have to impact the quality of education a student receives,” she says.

She explains that both of her older siblings have also gone to UC schools and done well after graduation, and this ranking makes her proud to be a student in the UC system.

“We’re a public research university and we take this mission very seriously to provide the best world class education to all our state citizens,” Moser says. “We’re proud of what this College Access Index says about the University of California and the way that we lead.”

Forty-two percent of UC undergraduate students are first-generation college students, she notes.

“I think it’s important to make high-quality public education available to everyone … and that nationally we should do everything to make that possible.”

Moser adds she’s not sure how other schools can learn from UC’s model for helping low-income students, but she hopes the ranking increases the national attention on income diversity at U.S. colleges.