University of Texas at Arlington’s business class for fall 2024 was 60.7% first-generation, higher than other of the 104 programs we ranked.
FIRST GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENTS
According to the Center for First-Generation Student Success, nearly 1 in 3 undergrads define themselves as first-generation students, or the first in their families to attend college. That usually means they have fewer financial resources and support. While the number of first-generation students rises year after year, the rate of those that earn a four-year degree trails behind traditional students by about 20%.
As part of our data collection, we asked schools in our ranking to report the percentage of first-generation college students entering last fall.
FIRST-GEN STUDENTS HIGHS & LOWS
HIGHEST |
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| 2025 Rank | School | 2024 % First Gen | 2023 % First Gen |
2022 % First Gen
|
| 103 | University of Texas at Arlington | 60.68% | 52.44% | 53.82% |
| 73 | Iona University (LaPenta) | 54.00% | ||
| 98 | Northern Illinois University | 51.50% | 55.50% | 51.20% |
| 86 | University of the Pacific (Eberhardt) | 49.00% | 33.00% | 37.40% |
| 88 | Florida International University | 48.00% | 10.00% | 10.33% |
| 40 | University of Houston (Bauer) | 42.60% | 42.10% | 41.00% |
| 76 | Marian University (Indianapolis) | 41.20% | 35.30% | 21.10% |
LOWEST |
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| 2025 Rank | School | 2024 % First Gen | 2023 % First Gen |
2022 % First Gen
|
| 38 | Elon University (Love) | 9.50% | 8.50% | 7.60% |
| 87 | University of North Carolina-Wilmington (Cameron) | 9.10% | 19.80% | 16.40% |
| 36 | Purdue University (Daniels) | 9.00% | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| 81 | University of Denver (Daniels) | 8.40% | 13.27% | 16.23% |
| 10 | Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) | 8.00% | 19.50% | 17.03% |
| 37 | Fairfield University (Dolan) | 8.00% | ||
| 47 | Brigham Young University (Marriott) | 7.70% | ||
| 49 | University of Dayton | 7.10% | 6.00% | 5.00% |
| 18 | Wake Forest University | 7.00% | 9.00% | 2.00% |
Three schools enrolled more first-generation students than non: University of Texas at Arlington’s business class for fall 2024 was 60.7% first-generation, higher than other of the 104 programs we ranked.
Iona University (LaPenta), which is new to our ranking, enrolled a class that was 54% first-generation while Northern Illinois University enrolled 51.5%.
At the lower end of the table below, first-gen students made up less than 10% of the incoming classes at 9 schools on our ranking.
The table below shows all school reported data for the percentage of first-generation college students in the fall incoming classes of 2024, 2023 and 2022.
| 2025 Rank | School | 2024 % First Gen | 2023 % First Gen | 2022 % First Gen |
| 1 | University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) | 21.40% | 18.90% | 16.20% |
| 2 | Cornell University (Dyson SC Johnson) | 27.40% | 23.40% | 20.90% |
| 3 | University of Southern California (Marshall) | 20.00% | 31.00% | 26.00% |
| 4 | University of Virginia (McIntire) | 14.00% | 15.00% | 16.25% |
| 4 | Georgetown University (McDonough) | 12.30% | 8.39% | 11.84% |
| 5 | New York University (Stern) | 25.00% | 19.50% | 18.80% |
| 6 | Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) | 18.00% | 20.00% | 19.00% |
| 7 | University of Notre Dame (Mendoza) | 10.70% | 10.50% | 11.70% |
| 8 | Emory University (Goizueta) | 15.10% | 15.60% | 13.70% |
| 9 | University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) | 15.10% | 14.30% | 10.00% |
| 10 | Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) | 8.00% | 19.50% | 17.03% |
| 11 | University of Michigan (Ross) | 10.00% | 14.00% | 14.00% |
| 12 | Villanova University | 10.00% | 8.00% | 8.00% |
| 13 | Northeastern University (D’Amore-McKim) | 19% | 18.00% | 18.00% |
| 15 | Georgia Institute of Technology (Scheller) | 13.80% | 22.00% | 16.60% |
| 16 | Boston University (Questrom) | 20.60% | 24.27% | 19.90% |
| 17 | University of Richmond (Robins) | 10.00% | 5.00% | 8.20% |
| 18 | Wake Forest University | 7.00% | 9.00% | 2.00% |
| 19 | University of Illinois (Gies) | 15.90% | 20.30% | 21.50% |
| 20 | William & Mary (Mason) | 10.00% | 7.20% | 10.00% |
| 21 | University of Miami (Herbert) | 11.10% | 12.96% | 13.00% |
| 22 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | 10.10% | 14.24% | 15.34% |
| 23 | Indiana University (Kelley) | 0 | ||
| 24 | University of Minnesota (Carlson) | 19.90% | 19.40% | 14.10% |
| 25 | Bucknell University (Freeman) | 11.00% | 12.00% | 12.00% |
| 26 | Lehigh University | 16.28% | 17.00% | 16.00% |
| 27 | Trinity University (Neidorff) | 0.00% | ||
| 28 | Texas Christian University (Neeley) | 10.10% | 10.40% | 8.70% |
| 29 | Fordham University (Gabelli) | 23.40% | 20.90% | 19.30% |
| 30 | Southern Methodist University (Cox) | 13.00% | 7.00% | 7.00% |
| 31 | Binghamton University | 21.90% | 22.80% | 22.70% |
| 32 | University of Washington (Foster) | 36.80% | 55.00% | 50.40% |
| 33 | University of Georgia (Terry) | 11.50% | 9.00% | 8.00% |
| 34 | University of Pittsburgh | 16.92% | 13.07% | 19.00% |
| 35 | Tulane University (Freeman) | 10.10% | 8.84% | 5.20% |
| 36 | Purdue University (Daniels) | 9.00% | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| 37 | Fairfield University (Dolan) | 8.00% | ||
| 38 | Elon University (Love) | 9.50% | 8.50% | 7.60% |
| 39 | Syracuse University (Whitman) | 10.00% | 18.86% | 12.00% |
| 40 | University of Houston (Bauer) | 42.60% | 42.10% | 41.00% |
| 41 | University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Isenberg) | 20.20% | ||
| 42 | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | 11% | 14.90% | 22.00% |
| 43 | Providence College | 14.00% | 14.30% | 13.40% |
| 44 | Rutgers Business School – New Brunswick | 19.50% | 28.40% | 27.60% |
| 45 | Miami University (Farmer) | 10.90% | 12.10% | 9.70% |
| 46 | Lipscomb University | 20.92% | 22.58% | 20.16% |
| 47 | Brigham Young University (Marriott) | 7.70% | ||
| 48 | Butler University (Lacy) | 15.04% | ||
| 49 | University of Dayton | 7.10% | 6.00% | 5.00% |
| 50 | Texas A&M University (Mays) | 12.10% | 15.73% | 12.50% |
| 51 | Bryant University | 20.20% | ||
| 52 | University of Delaware (Lerner) | 12.30% | 11.10% | 9.90% |
| 53 | The College of New Jersey | 27.00% | 30.00% | 27.00% |
| 54 | University of Tennessee (Haslam) | 10.20% | 11.20% | 11.80% |
| 55 | Loyola Marymount University | 13.63% | 15.00% | NR |
| 56 | University of San Diego (Knauss) | 23.00% | 22.30% | 24.00% |
| 57 | University of South Carolina (Darla Moore) | 13.72% | 15.07% | 17.19% |
| 58 | University of New Hampshire (Paul) | 15.50% | 21.39% | 17.00% |
| 59 | Hofstra University (Zarb) | 36.00% | 36.00% | 36.00% |
| 60 | Rochester Institute of Technology (Saunders) | 37.00% | 0.00% | |
| 61 | Florida Southern College (Barnett) | 20.00% | 12.00% | 16.00% |
| 62 | University of St. Thomas (Opus) | 23.00% | ||
| 63 | University of Connecticut | 28.52% | ||
| 64 | St. John’s University (Tobin) | 38.00% | 35.00% | 21.00% |
| 65 | Duquesne University (Palumbo Donahue) | 29.50% | 32.00% | 21.00% |
| 66 | Seton Hall University (Stillman) | 27.50% | 34.70% | 34.50% |
| 67 | Saint Louis University (Chaifetz) | 19.20% | 20.76% | 17.20% |
| 68 | Michigan State University (Broad) | 13.90% | 5.27% | 5.08% |
| 69 | Drexel University (LeBow) | 30.00% | 36.00% | 32.00% |
| 70 | University of Texas at Dallas (Jindal) | 30.00% | 22.90% | 25.00% |
| 71 | University of Missouri-Columbia (Trulaske) | 16.10% | ||
| 72 | Hult International Business School | 0.00% | 0.00% | |
| 73 | Iona University (LaPenta) | 54.00% | ||
| 74 | Towson University | 35.34% | 36.00% | 31.00% |
| 75 | Texas State University (McCoy) | 35.50% | ||
| 76 | Marian University (Indianapolis) | 41.20% | 35.30% | 21.10% |
| 77 | Seattle University (Albers) | 36.04% | 11.80% | |
| 78 | Roger Williams University (Gabelli) | 28.40% | 25.00% | NR |
| 79 | Ohio University | 20.59% | 21.05% | 23.32% |
| 80 | Rutgers Business School – Newark | 35.00% | 32.02% | 37.80% |
| 81 | University of Denver (Daniels) | 8.40% | 13.27% | 16.23% |
| 82 | Ithaca College | 23.00% | 22.00% | 21.00% |
| 83 | Bowling Green State University (Schmidthorst) | 25.00% | 43.18% | 16.40% |
| 84 | University of Mary Washington | 28.00% | ||
| 85 | Sacred Heart University | 26.00% | 27.80% | 27.70% |
| 86 | University of the Pacific (Eberhardt) | 49.00% | 33.00% | 37.40% |
| 87 | University of North Carolina-Wilmington (Cameron) | 9.10% | 19.80% | 16.40% |
| 88 | Florida International University | 48.00% | 10.00% | 10.33% |
| 89 | Texas Tech University (Rawls) | 24.90% | 24.68% | 22.50% |
| 90 | University of Michigan-Dearborn | 33.00% | 35.50% | 44.10% |
| 91 | Saint Joseph’s University (Haub) | 16.20% | ||
| 92 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Lally) | 21.00% | ||
| 93 | American University (Kogod) | 19.00% | 12.00% | 12.00% |
| 94 | University of Kentucky (Gatton) | 21.00% | 17.71% | 19.48% |
| 95 | University of Akron | 17.32% | 23.65% | 30.57% |
| 96 | Oregon State University | 23.00% | 32.00% | |
| 97 | San Jose State University (Lucas) | 38.00% | ||
| 98 | Northern Illinois University | 51.50% | 55.50% | 51.20% |
| 99 | Iowa State University (Ivy) | 23.80% | ||
| 100 | University of Kansas | 15.82% | ||
| 101 | San Diego State University (Fowler) | 22.70% | 34.90% | 17.80% |
| 102 | Adelphi University (Willumstad) | 0.00% | ||
| 103 | University of Texas at Arlington | 60.68% | 52.44% | 53.82% |
| 104 | Kennesaw State University (Coles) | 38.00% |
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