Creating a Class

COLLEGE ADMISSIONS AND THE EDUCATION OF ELITES

Nathan Mack
HIED 556
Pennsylvania State University
Spring 2016

SUMMARY: OVERVIEW

Creating a Class chronicles a Stanford

professors 18 months in the Admissions Office
at a prestigious New England college

Major Themes:

Status matters

Selecting and enrolling a freshman class is

significantly more complicated than simply
admitting the most academically qualified
students

Many factors are at play and the scales are and

have been historically tipped towards wealthy,
White, more privileged young men and women

SUMMARY: NUMBERS

Elite Colleges and Universities in the United States have become places of status

Status was first conferred by the people elites sent their students to institutions that
attracted like-minded, similarly privileged students

Selectivity has traditionally been the most significant measure of status

US News and World Report, with their first rankings, created a formal status system
based on numbers

Other key numerical factors have become important:

Diversity

Retention and graduation rates

Alumni giving rates

Numbers and data have become a vital part of the admissions process

Given the manyadvantages of numbers, it is perhaps little surprise that higher

educationdeveloped metrics for determining the relative status of U.S. college and
universities (37).

SUMMARY: TRAVEL

Admissions Officers travel extensively across the world

each year in order to court new students

They also prioritize establishing relationships with school

counselors

Key Points:

Admissions Offices place emphasis on elite secondary

institutions: private schools and public schools in elite,
upper middle class neighborhoods

The relationships with counselors give elite students an

advantage not granted to lower income families

For example: Counselors write more details recommendations

or are granted face/phone time with admissions to discuss
particular candidates

The travel is important. The

Colleges reputation and the
quality of its applicant pool are
dependent upon its connections
with high schools nationwide
(53).

SUMMARY: SPORTS
athleticscreate chronic obstacles to
admissions officers goal of recruiting the
numerically strongest students they can
(122).

Sports have unique importance on American college campuses, unlike any other system of higher
education in the world

Sports and Admissions are related, particularly at prestigious universities

Conferences (such as Ivy League, Big 10, etc) create rankings and status conferred to only certain
institutions across the country

Space in sports programs (thus admission) is limited and prioritized, thus students from elite
backgrounds with more financial and temporal resources gain a competitive advantage during the
admissions process

SUMMARY: RACE

Diversity and race have been important

considerations in admissions

Quotas were ruled unconstitutional though

institutions may consider race/ethnicity when
admitting students

There now exists a goal to increase the diversity of

student bodies

However, issues exist:

Multicultural students may not feel welcome or a

sense of belonging at traditionally white, privileged
institutions

Students with significant financial need become

expensive for the institution

Students of color do not exist, generally, at the

schools where admissions offices recruit

Virtually all selective colleges are

officially committed to increasing
their minority numbers (179).
the question of whether students
of color were enjoying their
education was perhaps too luxurious
a concern (180).

SUMMARY: DECISIONS

Deciding whom to admit and whom not to admit is extremely complicated

Applications are evaluated, not applicants

Admission is competitive and universities look to non-cognitive variables to

make decisions

Personality traits and characteristics

Values

Demographic information

Elite students have greater assistance in telling a compelling story and thus
benefit from an uneven playing field during the process

They also benefit from more resources in their upbringing in order to craft
stories

The aforementioned relationships with counselors also benefits elite students

Other factors can be at play:

Sports

Legacy status and potential family monetary donations

Relationships with key institutional constituents

but the bottom line was that the

exigencies impinging on each years
class obliged officers to turn
mostapplicants away: because
they cost too much, or their test
scores were too low, of they had not
made it to the top of the
coacheswish lists (213).

SUMMARY:
THE ARISTOCRACY OF MERIT

The odds are stacked against middle and low-income families and towards the
upper middle class

Elite families have an innate competitive advantage due to the resources

available to them

These resources are disproportionately favored in the college admissions process at

selective institutions

Elite institutions are often seen as the only way to ensure that students
remain elite a desire for many parents and families

Final message: In a society that sees higher education as the key to ultimate
success, while we agree there should be a place for everyone, the playing
field is not even. Particularly, at what are considered elite instutitions

In contemporary America, college may perhaps be for all, but the preferred institutions are for only a
few (262).

MY RESPONSE

Creating a Class was an extremely compelling expose of selective college

admissions in the United States

The reader learns a great deal of important and new information

The issue of college access plagues the industry and this story tells of the
inequity that exists inherently in our system

Creating a Class allows an individual to peer into the system that governs
admissions to elite institutions

It is clear that gaining admission to a selective institution for a low or

middle income student proves particularly challenging

Nevertheless, the focus of the book is a touch myopic; of the thousands of

institutions in the United States, very few are selective and considered elite

ANALYSIS OF KEY ISSUES

College Access admission to selective institutions is unbalanced

Affordability affording elite institutions proves difficult for both the

institution and prospective families

Class Bias relationships are developed with high-income families and low and
middle income families receive less support during the process

The competition among elite institutions creates ethical dilemmas

The desire for prestige and status

The likeliness of a family to donate

etc

CONSIDERATIONS: ADMISSIONS
PROFESSIONALS

As admissions professionals, we must understand the class

bias that exists within our system
We admit to the hypocrisy of it but do little to change it
In our quest for higher education and opportunity for
all, the responsibility for leveling the playing field rests
partly in our hands
Perhaps we should change the focus of our outreach?
Perhaps we should become more transparent in our
selection processes?

CONSIDERATIONS:
OTHER FACULTY AND STAFF
Major

issue:

Even

when lower income or students of

color are enrolled at our institutions,
they may not feel that they matter

As

professionals, we have a responsibility

to all of our students, not just elites

IEO APPLICATION

Input: Elite families with time, money and resources to allow for concerted
cultivation (245). Students receive extra support, create compelling
applications and gain advantages in the admissions process.

Students with this input gain access to traditionally prestigious and elite
environments.

Output can be affected i.e., elite institutions have higher graduation rates
for black students (179).

Input has a significant effect on the environment made available to a

student which can in turn have an effect on outcomes.

IEO APPLICATION

Input: students who are not raised in elite families have less resources and
less support.

Two possible results:

No admission to selective institutional environments

If selected, they often do not feel welcome or a sense of belonging

Outcomes could be affected by either scenario student satisfaction, college

access, etc.

Input has an effect on environment which in turn could have an effect on

outcomes.

IEO matters.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

How can we create an environment within which students of differing input

can feel successful, supported and nurtured?

How can we account for inequities within the input (that the student has
little control over) so that students have equal opportunity to potentially
benefit from certain institutional environments?

Is the focus on elite institutions really that important? Can the conversation
about access shift as few of the institutions nationwide are selective and thus
as an industry, perhaps we can make a concerted effort to create similarly
successful environments elsewhere and thus affect student outcomes?

How can we ensure that, regardless of the inequity in input, that we evaluate
prospective students equally and fairly?

THANK YOU!

References
Stevens, Mitchell. Creating a Class: College
Admissions and the Education of Elites.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.