Income and Access to Higher Education: Are High Quality Universities Becoming More or Less Elite? A Longitudinal Analysis of Admissions at UW-Madison

Has access to selective post-secondary schools expanded or contracted? Evaluating this question has proven a difficult task due to limited data and biased measures of family income. We complement previous work and provide a replicable model of institutional analysis. This paper presents a detailed assessment of admissions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a major public university – the kind that is supposed to offer excellent opportunities to students from all backgrounds. We employ an innovative measure of family income to compare applicant and admissions trends for low-income students against those for minority students from 1972-2007. We conclude with a discussion of policy alternatives for closing enrollment gaps, and offer a cautionary note about the potential efficacy of affirmative action.