The share of Pell recipients among undergraduates has hovered around a third in recent years, reflecting broader Pell expansion and its role in widening access.

MIT reports a 43% two-year rise in Pell-eligible freshmen, aided by free tuition for families earning under $200,000, illustrating how targeted financial aid drives access.

The central debate remains whether economic diversity alone achieves equity in elite access, or if policy adjustments are needed to balance socioeconomic and racial diversity within federal legal constraints.

Overall trend shows income-diversity efforts accelerating in higher education due to Pell policy changes and admission shifts, yet facing legal scrutiny and mixed impacts on racial diversity.

Universities face potential federal scrutiny as the White House argues that prioritizing admissions by income or geography could function as a racial proxy, potentially violating the Supreme Court’s ban on race-based admissions.

The push toward economic diversity has accelerated under legal and political pressure, with officials arguing that wealth- or geography-based preferences may clash with the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling, inviting federal review.

As a result of these concerns, actions like the College Board halting certain demographic data offerings signal a broader retreat from wealth- and neighborhood-based data in admissions decisions.

Some elite schools, including Amherst, are actively engaging with students from less affluent areas to uncover talent that might otherwise be overlooked.

Experts describe this moment as a critical inflection point for access and equity, with elite colleges pursuing broader socioeconomic access while legal and demographic dynamics complicate future policy.

Elite institutions such as Princeton, Yale, Duke, Johns Hopkins, MIT, and Amherst report rising enrollment of low-income students as admissions shift away from race-based considerations.

Observers see the shifts as partially responding to court rulings by pursuing broader socioeconomic diversity, though racial diversity has not uniformly kept pace, highlighting trade-offs in cases like Swarthmore.

The move toward income-based diversity is part of a broader strategy to maintain access and mitigate enrollment losses tied to eliminating race-based admissions.