1337scrub

*Perhaps more important than getting in is that if the income is high enough (~200-250K+), a student will have parents who can legitimately afford to pay full boat at top colleges. That is the definitive most important piece - being able to go to where you can get in (Forget where colleges themselves draw this line - EFC is a joke which measures how much a family can afford to go into debt for a kid's education rather than what they can actually afford if they're saving enough for retirement and/or their kid has grad school plans and/or a lot of other factors).*

I can guarantee that there is a general association between income level and quality of the colleges that a student can get into. You can get into a top university at any income level (people do it all the time), but, there are obvious reasons why a student from an upper income family would have better statistical odds for getting in.

An upper income student has more options open to them. They can afford to take community college classes if they're capable enough. They can go on all of the international school trips held during spring break. They can travel with their random extracirricular academic team when it advances to the nationals. They're more likely to have high-speed internet, a computer in their bedroom, a car for their personal use, plenty of space and a desk to do homework, and basically any other material items that enhance their efficiency at doing things.

More importantly, they're likely to come from a family environment that will aid them incredibly. They typically have parents who are successful and feel strongly about their kids' education (not as helicopter parents, though that is probably more likely as well). As there is some association with intelligence and wealth, their parents (or breadwinner parent) are likely to be more intelligent than those of middle or lower income students. Almost certainly, they'll have parents with better connections, which can lead to all sorts of opportunities ranging from internship opportunities to an actual connection at a top university.


Ultimately, students with money have an edge over those who don't have money. This is true of basically everything in life, be it that you can buy better things or probably have better connections. College admissions are one of the places in life where this edge can actually be most easily overcome, but it's still plenty strong enough that there is a clear advantage to being wealthy.