Study: Wealthy children more likely to attend elite universities

COLUMBIA, S.C. (CNN)— One research group says children from wealthy families are more than twice as likely to attend elite universities than those from middle-class families with comparable SAT and ACT scores.

That’s according to research conducted by Opportunity Insights, a group of Harvard researchers and policy analysts studying inequality.

They looked at the eight Ivy League Universities, in addition to Stanford, MIT, Duke and the University of Chicago, analyzing anonymous admissions data linked to income tax records and SAT and ACT test scores and defining the top 1% as having an income over $611,000.

They say multiple factors drove the advantage, like preference for legacy admissions, weight placed on nonacademic credentials, and athletic requirement.