NYT ranks UCI No. 1 in nation for outreach to low-income students

The New York Times has named UCI No. 1 among U.S. universities that do the most for low-income students. The 2015 rankings were presented at The New York Times’ Schools for Tomorrow conference by David Leonhardt, editor of NYT website The Upshot, which first published the list in 2014. Last year’s rankings were highly influential, leading some schools to actually change their financial aid policies. UCI topped this year’s College Access Index, immediately followed by four other University of California campuses. A measure of economic diversity, the index is based on three factors: the share of students receiving Pell Grants (which typically go to families making less than $70,000 a year); the graduation rate of those students; and the net cost, after financial aid, that a college charges low- and middle-income students. The rankings include 179 of the nation’s top colleges, defined as having an overall five-year graduation rate of at least 75 percent. UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman is quoted in the website story, saying, “The big challenge for American higher education is that it has to be a gateway through which talented young people can thrive, regardless of their background.”