Trump's Deals With Top Colleges May Give Rich Applicants a Bigger Edge

New York Times

07-08-2025

In recent deals with Columbia and Brown, the Trump administration demanded that they publicly share anonymized data about all applicants, including their standardized test scores, grade point averages and race.
Linda McMahon, the education secretary, said the agreements with the two Ivy League colleges would ensure that 'aspiring students will be judged solely on their merits, not their race or sex.'
But another factor strongly influences students' chances of being admitted to an elite college: their parents' income. Rich parents generally spend more time and money on children's education throughout their youth, so by the time they apply to college, they tend to have higher test scores and other qualifications elite colleges seek.
In effect, the administration's efforts to prioritize standardized tests and G.P.A.s could make wealth even more influential in admissions at top-tier colleges across the country.
'This move could also further entrench advantages for wealthy applicants rather than reduce bias,' especially if colleges feel political pressure to admit only applicants with the highest test scores and grades, said Adam Nguyen, founder of Ivy Link, which provides college admissions advice to families with students as young as fifth grade and charges up to $750,000 for the services.
'Equally talented low-income or even mid-income students rarely have access to that level of strategic guidance,' he said. 'Any selective admissions process that ignores income, privilege and structural access while targeting race‑based efforts to increase diversity isn't leveling the playing field. It's cementing it.'
Source: Opportunity Insights and Chetty, Deming, Friedman (2023)
Data is from at least three of the dozen top colleges where the researchers had access to detailed admissions records.
Percent of SAT test takers who scored 1300 or higher, by income group
38%
30%
20%
10%
2.4%
Bottom
20%
20th–
40th
40th–
60th
60th–
80th
Top
20%
Top
1%
Top
0.1%
→
Parents' income rank
→
POORER
RICHER
Percent of SAT test takers who scored 1300 or higher, by income group
38%
30%
20%
10%
2.4%
Bottom
20%
20th–
40th
40th–
60th
60th–
80th
Top
20%
Top
1%
Top
0.1%
→
→
POORER
Parents' income rank
RICHER
Source: Opportunity Insights and Chetty, Deming, Friedman (2023).
Based on SAT and ACT scores from students who were on track to graduate high school in 2011, 2013 or 2015 and their parents' tax records. (ACT scores were converted into equivalent SAT scores.)
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