No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal

Race and Class in Elite College Admission and Campus Life

Thomas J. Espenshade, Alexandria Walton Radford

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780691162133, 9780691141602
• eBook ISBN: 9781400831531
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

The truth about America's elite colleges and universities—who gets in, who succeeds, and why

Against the backdrop of today's increasingly multicultural society, are America's elite colleges admitting and successfully educating a diverse student body? No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal pulls back the curtain on the selective college experience and takes a rigorous and comprehensive look at how race and social class impact each stage—from application and admission, to enrollment and student life on campus. Arguing that elite higher education contributes to both social mobility and inequality, the authors investigate such areas as admission advantages for minorities, academic achievement gaps tied to race and class, unequal burdens in paying for tuition, and satisfaction with college experiences.

The book's analysis is based on data provided by the National Survey of College Experience, collected from more than nine thousand students who applied to one of ten selective colleges between the early 1980s and late 1990s. The authors explore the composition of applicant pools, factoring in background and "selective admission enhancement strategies"—including AP classes, test-prep courses, and extracurriculars—to assess how these strengthen applications. On campus, the authors examine roommate choices, friendship circles, and degrees of social interaction, and discover that while students from different racial and class circumstances are not separate in college, they do not mix as much as one might expect. The book encourages greater interaction among student groups and calls on educational institutions to improve access for students of lower socioeconomic status.

No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal offers valuable insights into the intricate workings of America's elite higher education system.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter One: Overview
• Chapter Two: Preparing for College
• Chapter Three: What Counts in Being Admitted?
• Chapter Four: The Entering Freshman Class
• Chapter Five: Mixing and Mingling on Campus
• Chapter Six: Academic Performance
• Chapter Seven: Shouldering the Financial Burden
• Chapter Eight: Broader Perspectives on the Selective College Experience
• Chapter Nine: Do We Still Need Affi rmative Action?
• Chapter Ten: Where Do We Go from Here?
• Appendix A: The NSCE Database
• Appendix B: Notes on Methodology
• Appendix C: Additional Tables
• References
• Index