The power of privilege : Yale and America's elite colleges / Joseph A. Soares.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Soares, Joseph A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Universities and colleges--United States--Admission.

Universities and colleges.

Education, Higher--United States.

Education, Higher.

Elite (Social sciences)--United States.

Elite (Social sciences).

Yale University--Admission.

Yale University.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (254 p.)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

It is widely assumed that admission to elite U.S. universities is based solely on academic merit—the best and brightest are admitted to Harvard, Yale, and their peer institutions as determined by test scores and GPA, and not by lineage or family income. But does reality support those expectations? Or are admissions governed by a logic that rewards socioeconomic status while disguising it as personal merit? The Power of Privilege examines the nexus between social class and admissions at America's top colleges from the vantage point of Yale University, a key actor in the history of higher education. It is a documented history of the institutional gatekeepers, confident of the validity of socially biased measures of merit, seeking to select tomorrow's leadership class from among their economically privileged clientele. Acceptance in prestigious colleges still remains beyond the reach of most students except those from high-income professional families. Ultimately, the author suggests reforms that would move America's top schools toward becoming genuine academic meritocracies.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Tables

Foreword and Acknowledgments

1. Meritocracy and Its Discontents

2. Elite Colleges and the Search for Superior Students

3. Social-Class Diversity at Yale after 1950?

4. The Brewster Years, Meritocracy in Power? The New Administration in 1964: Kingman Brewster and Inslee Clark

5. The Old Machinery of Meritocracy Is Discarded: No More Predicting Grades, No More Verbal Analogies

6. Top-Tier Colleges and Privileged Social Groups

Conclusions

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-232) and index.

ISBN:

0-8047-6828-5

OCLC:

648268669