Yes, the vast majority of Pell eligible students have income less than $50k. A small minority have incomes more than $50k.
While Amherst has had better SES diversity than other NESCAC schools for many years, they have notably improved since the date of the Chetty study, so the Pell% and top 5% grouping above gives a misleading view of lack of middle income students compared to lower income students. At the time of the Chetty study, the distribution was as follows. The higher the income, the greater the degree of overrepresentation, and the lower the income, the greater degree of underrepresentation.
4.4% from 99.9+ percentile income (44x overrepresentation)
17% from 99 to 99.9 percentile income (19x overrepresentation)
20% from 95-99 percentile income (5x overrepresentation)
10% from 90-95 percentile income (2x overrepresentation)
9% from 80-90 percentile income (balanced)
16% from 60-80 percentile income (slight underrepresentation)
19% from 20-60 percentile income (2x underrepresentation)
5% from <20 percentile income (4x underrepresentation)
13% Pell
In the most recent NCES year, Pell increased from 13% at Chetty study to 30%. There is significant year to year variation in this figure. According to Amherst’s website, it dropped to 24% in the following year. As the Pell and lower income % increased in more recent years, I expect both the upper income and middle income kids decreased. How much they decreased is unclear.