Liberal Arts Colleges, Admissions and Disguised Elite Social Reproduction
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Authors
Soares, Joseph A.
Issue Date
2014-11-15
Type
event
flash
flash
Language
Keywords
Educational Sociology
Alternative Title
The Liberal Arts in an Unequal Society
Abstract
Most private liberal-arts colleges participate in an admissions system that disguises social selection as academic selection; we claim to pick the best brains not the biggest bank accounts when in truth we conflate the two. For a high-school senior seeking to attend college, it is better to be from the bottom quartile of ability and the top quartile of family income than the reverse. When the two standardized tests for college admissions, the SAT and the ACT, are relied on, liberal-arts colleges send a message that skews their application pool and their admit list toward high SES youths. Test-optional admissions undermines but does not eradicate the high SES/liberal arts nexus. Liberal-arts colleges appear to be more obsessed with elite social reproduction than are elite families. The economics of private education and pressures from the rankings industry help to keep liberal arts colleges in the elite repro game.