Selective Colleges Research Articles

Elite Schools and Opting In: Effects of College Selectivity on Career and Family Outcomes

Using College and Beyond data and a variant on Dale and Krueger's (2002) matched-applicant approach, this paper revisits the question of how attending an elite college affects later-life outcomes. We expand the scope along two dimensions: we do not restrict the sample to full-time full-year workers and we examine labor force participation, human capital, and family formation. For men, our findings echo those in Dale and Krueger (2002): controlling for selection eliminates the positive relationship between college selectivity and earnings. We also find no significant effects on men's educational or family outcomes. The results are quite different for women: we find effects on both career and family outcomes. Attending a school with a 100-point higher average SAT score increases women's probability of advanced degree attainment by 5 percentage points and earnings by 14 percent, while reducing their likelihood of marriage by 4 percentage points. The effect of college selectivity on own earnings is significantly larger for married than for single women. Among married women, selective college attendance significantly increases spousal education.

Is Rejection a More Common Experience for Asian Americans? How Differences in College Application Strategy Affect Admissions Results

ABSTRACT Using data from the High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS:09), this study examines the experience of college acceptance and rejection among white and Asian American students applying to four-year postsecondary institutions. The results suggest that Asian male students in particular face higher rejection rates relative to whites with similar academic profiles. First, Asians participate in more supplementary preparation, apply to more schools, and consider more selective colleges than whites net of other characteristics, which suggests that they may anticipate more rejection than whites. After controlling for individual and background characteristics, Asian male students are eighty percent more likely to be rejected by their desired institution compared to whites. This effect is most prominent for high performing Asian male applicants to highly selective schools and lower performing Asian male applicants to less selective schools. Separate analyses by race show that the predictors for college rejection differ substantially for Asian and white applicants. When disaggregated by ethnic group, Chinese and Southeast Asian students, and more specifically Chinese males, face the highest odds of rejection net of other explanatory factors. The author posits that the rejections faced by Asian male students may affect their feelings of resentment about the college application experience. (198 words)

Persistent Inequalities in College Completion, 1980–2010

Abstract Fewer than half of America’s college students complete their bachelor’s degrees. To many, cost seems to be the crucial barrier. Sociologists of education have long argued, though, that inequalities start before costs matter. Entrenched “sort and sieve” processes apportion outcomes to family background. The whole system of grading, testing, and selecting some students while rejecting others makes a degree much more likely for students from higher status families—and that system was in place long before states limited appropriations and tuition skyrocketed. Analyzing longitudinal data from three cohorts of high school students, we find only small changes in the college graduation rate as of 1988, 1998, and 2010. Second, baseline socioeconomic and racial disparities in college completion were just as high in 1988 as in 2010. Third, mediation analysis shows that half of the socioeconomic disparities work through pre-college factors such as grades and curriculum choices. The other half reflect higher graduation rates at selective colleges. Fourth, the only notable change concerned community colleges; the potential disadvantage of starting at one declined after the 1980s. Our analysis affirms sociologists’ focus on persistent aspects of academic sorting, not recent changes, as the root of inequality of opportunity in American higher education.

Can Standardizing Applicant High School and Neighborhood Information Help to Diversify Selective Colleges?

Many selective colleges consider the backgrounds of applicants to improve equity in admissions. However, this information is usually not available for all applicants. We examine whether the chances of admission and enrollment changed after 43 colleges gained access to a new tool that standardizes information on educational disadvantage for all applicants. Applicants from the most challenging school and neighborhood backgrounds experienced a 5-percentage point increase in the probability of admission in the year of adoption relative to similar applicants in the previous year. The tool did not alter the probability of enrollment as a function of applicant challenge level in the full sample, but positive changes are concentrated among applicants to institutions that used the tool to allocate financial aid.

From Bat Mitzvah to the Bar: Religious Habitus, Self-Concept, and Women’s Educational Outcomes

This study considers the role of religious habitus and self-concept in educational stratification. We follow 3,238 adolescents for 13 years by linking the National Study of Youth and Religion to the National Student Clearinghouse. Survey data reveal that girls with a Jewish upbringing have two distinct postsecondary patterns compared to girls with a non-Jewish upbringing, even after controlling for social origins: (1) they are 23 percentage points more likely to graduate college, and (2) they graduate from much more selective colleges. We then analyze 107 interviews with 33 girls from comparable social origins interviewed repeatedly between adolescence and emerging adulthood. Girls raised by Jewish parents articulate a self-concept marked by ambitious career goals and an eagerness to have new experiences. For these girls, elite higher education and graduate school are central to attaining self-concept congruence. In contrast, girls raised by non-Jewish parents tend to prioritize motherhood and have humbler employment aims. For them, graduating from college, regardless of its prestige, is sufficient for self-concept congruence. We conclude that religious subculture is a key factor in educational stratification, and divergent paths to self-concept congruence can help explain why educational outcomes vary by religion in gendered ways.

Persistence and change in structural signatures of tie formation over time

Using data on the formation of Facebook friendships from over 100,000 students at the 1141 four-year colleges and universities in the Department of Education Scorecard dataset, we examine whether students’ tendencies to form more open or closed relations (their closure “signature”) persist as they leave high school and attend college, and whether this varies by the type of institution attended. Despite significant persistence of individual signature, for the case of Facebook friendships, individuals do tend to adopt the closure signature that characterizes their school. Contrary to expectation, students at more selective colleges are more, not less, likely to form friends with those with whom they share more friends. Yet, at the crucial time of transition to a new school, they form more open ties, due to the tendency of very popular students to reach out to those they generally would not form ties with.

Analyzing Faculty Open Access Publishing: A citation analysis of select colleges at the University of South Florida

In scholarly communication literature, an Open Access citation advantage refers to articles published or released as Open Access receiving a higher citation count than articles that are not released Open Access. This article considers Open Access citation advantage factors at the University of South Florida. Data from Scopus and Open Access Button was used to examine publication activity from a five-year range in seven different departments. The data indicated that an Open Access citation advantage does exist in most of those departments. Future research is necessary to look at other departments.

PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, FOREIGN EXPERIENCE AND COMPARISONS BETWEEN CHINA AND MALAYSIA

The article examines a serious problem with the implementation of the "comprehensive three-child policy" in China, the lack of personnel in educational institutions starting from the first stages of child development. The training of preschool teachers, teachers, lecturers and heads of educational institutions is of great importance to fill the gap in the lack of personnel. The study selected a local undergraduate college in China and Malaysia for comparison. The used methods of content analysis and comparison made it possible to carry out an in-depth analysis of the goals of education, the structure, nature and content of the curriculum, the number of courses of two selective colleges, thus obtaining a general situation for building a system of education on the main existing problems of these two colleges. As Malaysia and China are Asian countries, there are similarities and differences in the curricula of their education majors, especially in the number of courses. It was determined that when drawing up a training program, it is necessary to find out the basics and principles of the training program. The curriculum must meet the requirements of national educational laws and regulations regarding basic knowledge and the quality of student talents in preschool education and take into account the characteristics of the educational facilities. At the same time, it must be formulated based on comprehensive consideration of the diverse needs of subject matter experts, early childhood educators, teacher education managers, early childhood education students (including graduates), planning experts, and other personnel. Learning objectives should meet the talent requirements determined by the subject of study and level of training, and the level of training of preschool teachers and undergraduate students should be higher than that of junior students. In addition to the training of staff teachers, it is also necessary to develop the potential management talents of preschool educational institutions. It is proposed to integrate practice into other educational courses, mandatory internship and various forms of practice in course implementation. Teaching methods should be optimized according to the needs of students, and a certain amount of time for independent study should be provided to develop their ability to study independently.

Divergent Approaches to Access: How Selective College Admissions Offices Recruit Lower-Income, First-Generation, and Working-Class Students

In recent years, selective colleges and universities have made diversifying their student bodies a top priority, yet the class diversity on these campuses has barely shifted. While most research on class disparities in college admissions focuses on student explanations, this study seeks to understand how campus admissions approaches to recruitment may also contribute to why so few lower-income, first-generation, and/or working-class students (LIFGWC students) attend selective colleges. To address this question, we conducted interviews with seven admissions officers from selective campuses with both relatively strong and weak records of LIFGWC students recruitment. Institutions with stronger records of recruiting LIFGWC students actively sought out new initiatives to make their college more accessible for LIFGWC students, and these actions were motivated by a shared focus on improving larger societal inequality. Although campuses with weaker records also expanded their recruitment strategies, their efforts were often piecemeal and motivated by competition for students and institutional rankings rather than a larger mission to improve diversity and equity. These findings suggest that institutional missions and philosophies are central to increasing access.

Old Neoliberalism in the US University

Old Neoliberalism in the US University

What If We Leave It Up to Chance? Admissions Lotteries and Equitable Access at Selective Colleges

Many prominent social scientists have advocated for random-draw lotteries as a solution to the “problem” of elite college admissions. They argue that lotteries will be fair, equitable, eliminate corruption, reduce student anxiety, restore democratic ideals, and end debates over race-conscious admissions. In response, we simulate potential lottery effects on student enrollment by race, gender, and income, using robust simulation methods and multiple minimum thresholds for grades and standardized tests. In the overwhelming majority of lottery simulations, the proportions of low-income students and students of color drop precipitously. With a GPA minimum, we find the proportion of men could drop as low as one third. Admissions lotteries with minimum bars for GPA and/or standardized tests do not appear to produce more equitable outcomes.

The effects of middle school remediation on postsecondary success: Regression discontinuity evidence from Florida

High school graduation rates in the United States are at an all-time high, yet many of these graduates are deemed not ready for postsecondary coursework when they enter college. This study examines the short-, medium-, and long-term effects of remedial courses in middle school using a regression discontinuity design. While the short-term test score benefits of taking a remedial course in English language arts in middle school fade quickly, I find significant positive effects on the likelihood of taking college credit-bearing courses in high school, college enrollment, enrolling in more selective colleges, persistence in college, and degree attainment.

Same major, same economic returns? College selectivity and earnings inequality in young adulthood

Fields of study are a persistent source of inequality among college graduates in the U.S., but surprisingly few studies have investigated factors that predict earnings within these fields. In this article, we focus on one dimension that has been central to studies of inequality in higher education—college selectivity—to examine how young adult earnings are stratified among college graduates who majored in the same fields, using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS; N = 2,952). We also assess gender differences in the relationships between fields of study, college selectivity, and earnings, given that gender is a consistent predictor of both majors and earnings. After accounting for selection bias using propensity score matching techniques, we find that recent college graduates in only two majors—business and the social sciences—experience a selectivity premium. Additionally, we find key gender differences in the majors that give rise to these premiums. Both men and women experience a selectivity premium in business and the social sciences, but within STEM fields, men benefit from a prestigious degree, but women do not. This finding underscores recent research showing that high-performing men in STEM fields receive outsized rewards relative to their women counterparts, thus deepening gender inequality in fields where women are underrepresented and assigned low expectations for performance.

HUMBLE PIE IS COLD COMFORT Comment on M. Sandel’s The Tyranny of Merit

HUMBLE PIE IS COLD COMFORT Comment on M. Sandel’s <i>The Tyranny of Merit</i>

A Social Ladder or a Glass Floor? The Role of Higher Education in Intergenerational Social Mobility: Empirical Evidence from South Korea

Though various measures of mobility rate for colleges, e.g. bottom-to-top mobility rate, status maintenance rate, and middle-class mobility rate, have been introduced, they have rarely been reviewed together to see the whole picture of intergenerational mobility, particularly in non-Western societies. This paper fills this gap and characterises mobility rates for 17 different college tiers in South Korea using the Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey for 37,552 graduates from 2007 to 2010. It documents two main results. First, mobility rates are higher for males than for females in all three measures, indicating colleges in South Korea are less effective as a social ladder for females. Second, many selective colleges are more likely to play a role as a glass floor than a social ladder due to their lower low-income access, and ‘selective public’ colleges are the engines of upward social mobility for students from the bottom three quintiles. Though people believe education is the single greatest hope to achieve upward social mobility, these findings cast doubt on the idea that college attendance alone can promote social mobility. This paper does not necessarily identify causal relationships that can be manipulated to improve mobility rates; however, it documents various patterns of interest to policymakers.

College gender composition and bachelor’s degree completion: the disadvantage of enrolment in a male-dominated institution

ABSTRACT Women are now the majority in undergraduate studies in many higher education systems, yet men and women tend to enrol at different rates in different fields of study and institutions. As a result, gender segregation is a prominent feature of contemporary higher education. Most previous studies have focused on gender composition in fields of study. In contrast, we considered college-level study in the Israeli context and asked whether composition is related to on-time undergraduate degree completion. By merging census data with other information, we followed students from high school into higher education and distinguished those who completed their undergraduate degree within the allotted timeframe from those who did not. Our results indicate that for both men and women, studying in an institution with a higher percentage of men is associated with reduced chances of on-time graduation, after controlling for socioeconomic background, previous achievement, field of study and college selectivity. This suggests that equalizing gender ratios in male-dominated institutions, which are often technology-oriented, will benefit both women, as they will enter lucrative technological fields of study, and men, who will otherwise suffer the disadvantage of attending institutions with lower chances of on-time graduation and possibly a less positive learning climate and study culture.

The University and the Global Knowledge Society

The University and the Global Knowledge Society

Closing the Gap: The Effect of Reducing Complexity and Uncertainty in College Pricing on the Choices of Low-Income Students

High-achieving, low-income students attend selective colleges at far lower rates than upper-income students with similar achievement. Behavioral biases, intensified by complexity and uncertainty in the admissions and aid process, may explain this gap. In a large-scale experiment we test an early commitment of free tuition at a flagship university. The intervention did not increase aid: rather, students were guaranteed before application the same grant aid that they would qualify for in expectation if admitted. The offer substantially increased application (68 percent versus 26 percent) and enrollment rates (27 percent versus 12 percent). The results suggest that uncertainty, present bias, and loss aversion loom large in students’ college decisions. (JEL I22, I23, I24, D31, I28)

Changing the Composition of Beginning Teachers: The Role of State Alternative Certification Policies

Drawing on nationally representative data from six cohorts of beginning teachers from the Schools and Staffing Survey and the National Teacher and Principal Survey, this study applies a difference-in-differences research design to examine the relationship between changes to state-level alternative certification policies and the characteristics of new teachers. The introduction of alternate routes into teaching is associated with an increase in the fraction of new teachers of color in a state and the new teachers who graduated from selective colleges. No evidence was found of a relationship with the relative share of male teachers or teachers of in-demand subjects.

What kind of teachers are schools looking for? Evidence from a randomized field experiment

Teacher quality is a pressing concern, yet little is known about the hiring process. This paper reports the results of an experiment in which public, private, and charter schools throughout the United States were sent resumes with randomly-selected characteristics from fictitious applicants for teaching positions. The pattern of callbacks suggests that an applicant’s academic background has little impact on the likelihood of success at private and charter schools, although public schools respond more favorably to candidates from more selective colleges. Private schools demonstrate a slight preference for female candidates. All three sectors demonstrate a preference for in-state candidates.