Cultural capital and elite university attendance in China

Abstract

This article investigates the association between cultural capital and the likelihood of attending an elite university within the Chinese socio-educational context. Drawing on data from the Beijing College Students Panel Survey, we show that (1) objectified cultural capital is negatively correlated with the likelihood of attending an elite university whereas embodied cultural capital shows a positive effect; (2) both types of cultural capital enhance the proficiencies of extracurricular activities, which, however, are negatively associated with different quantiles of the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) score; (3) learning capabilities can be strengthened by both types of cultural capital, but they cannot guarantee the attendance of an elite university since they only raise the middle and lower quantiles of the NCEE score; (4) only embodied cultural capital helps one attend an elite university by virtue of the channel of the NCEE exemption.