Creating a Class: College Admissions and the Education of Elites

By Mitchell Stevens

“In contemporary America, college may be for all, but the preferred institutions are only for a few,” writes Mitchell Stevens in his new book, Creating a Class. Stevens, an associate professor of sociology and education at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, spent 18 months observing the inner workings of the admissions office of an elite, highly selective East Coast liberal arts college. The story he uncovers as he watches the creation of a freshman class is that of wealthy families and the elaborate—and costly—organizational machinery they have developed to pass their privilege on to their children.

Stevens explains how elite colleges and universities have assumed the central role in the production of the nation’s privileged classes. He discovers why admissions offices must bring each class in “on budget,” burnish the statistics so crucial to institutional prestige, and take care of their colleagues in the athletic department and the development office. Stevens shows that the job cannot be done without an elaborate system of preferences. Kids have an edge if their parents can pay full tuition, if they attend high schools with exotic zip codes, if they are athletes, and even if they are popular.

As a participant-observer in the admissions office, Stevens talked at length with admissions staff and watched them deliberate the fates of applicants who were, on paper, quite similar. He traveled with admissions officers as they pitched the college to high school students with varying degrees of success. Buttressing these sometimes funny, sometimes disturbing observations are sharp theoretical insights about the role elite colleges play in the organization of American culture, and how crucial they are to the transmission of privilege across generations.