22 percent of Pomona College students qualify for Pell Grants, a federal financial aid grant reserved for domestic students of the neediest backgrounds. A 2017 review among top 50 LACs (as ranked by US News & World Report) identified Pomona as having the third highest Pell population as a percent of the first year class, after Soka University of America and Vassar College. According to a 2018 report by Third Way, Pomona was one of five colleges or universities (among 1566 analyzed) to graduate 100% of Pell Grant recipients within six years, considerably above the national graduation rate of this group at 51%. In 2017, "The New York Times" listed Pomona at #8 among "Top Colleges Doing the Most for the American Dream", based on net-prices for middle-income students and Pell percentage; Amherst College and Harvard University were the only other private institutions within the top 10.