Creating a Class: College Admissions and the Education of Elites (Hardcover)

by Mitchell L. Stevens (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Skillfully blending facts and figures with evocative case studies, Mitchell Stevens illuminates the process of admissions to an elite college, and shows how vexed and conflicted it is.
--Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard University (20080501)

At the most influential American colleges, growing competition to be selective and to be selected is undermining the democratic values traditionally entrusted to higher education. Rather than serving as routes to social mobility, many college admission offices end up perpetuating the status quo. Mitchell Stevens's thoughtful and eloquent book illuminates the machinations of the system-- and its consequences.
--Lloyd Thacker, President, Education Conservancy and editor of College Unranked

This fascinating book uses fly-on-the-wall reporting to show how decision-makers at a prestigious liberal arts college unwittingly perpetuate an American elite. Mitchell Stevens has done a real service by pulling back the curtain on the secretive college admissions process.
--Susan Coll, author of Acceptance: A Novel

Stevens is a storyteller, an ethnographer who takes readers on an 18-month journey as an admissions counselor. He skillfully paints a rich description of how admissions officers at a private, highly selective, liberal arts college make decisions, and explains why the ability to assemble strong applications is not evenly distributed across the population...Stevens states that his book is about privileged families and the organizational machinery in place to pass comfortable social positions on to their children. The book does much more...This text is a must read for undergraduate students, faculty, and parents.
--A. A. Hodge (Choice )

Mitchell Stevens gives a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of how prestigious colleges make [admissions] decisions and shows how what they decide has shaped the lifestyle and values of upper-middle-class America...It is his first-hand experience that makes the book such a gem--Stevens' narrative brings us into the thought-world of the admissions office itself, allowing the reader to view the process from the inside out.
--Jordan Hylden (First Things )

Merit may have displaced money as the primary calling card for admission to an elite college, but readers of this book may wonder if much has really changed. (Education Week )

Product Description

In real life, Mitchell Stevens is a professor in bustling New York. But for a year and a half, he worked in the admissions office of a bucolic New England college that is known for its high academic standards, beautiful campus, and social conscience. Ambitious high schoolers and savvy guidance counselors know that admission here is highly competitive. But creating classes, Stevens finds, is a lot more complicated than most people imagine.

Admissions officers love students but they work for the good of the school. They 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 "systematic preferencing," and racial affirmative action is the least of it. Kids have an edge if their parents can pay full tuition, if they attend high schools with exotic zip codes, if they are athletes--especially football players--and even if they are popular.

With novelistic flair, sensitivity to history, and a keen eye for telling detail, Stevens explains how elite colleges and universities have assumed their central role in the production of the nation's most privileged classes. Creating a Class makes clear that, for better or worse, these schools now define the standards of youthful accomplishment in American culture more generally.

(20071031)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067402673X
• ISBN-13: 978-0674026735
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #189,994 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Creating a class - an ethnography on private college admissions process, August 17, 2008

By	Scoob A. Diver (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews

Stevens does a very good job of portraying the setting of a small liberal arts instituion which works to create the best freshman class possible under competitive circumstances.

The author finds the process more complex than imagined as the admissions office is charged with bringing in a class to help improve the status of the college and to serve the needs of the development office as well as the athletic department. The book describes how elite colleges and universities have assumed a central role in producing the nation's most privileged classes. The author found that individual evaluation protocols do not create equal educational opportunity but subtly reinforce class privilege.

Overall, I think this book is a great read for parents of students, and students as well, in high school and many parts really captured the work we do each day to prepare our children to be competitive for this next step in their lives.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who Gets In...And Why?, May 30, 2009

By	Valerie J. Saturen (Tacoma, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In an economy where a college degree is virtually a prerequisite for financial security, the process of college admissions carries many implications for social equality and inequality. In this highly readable book, education and sociology professor Mitchell Stevens offers a glimpse into the world of admissions, which he immersed himself in by working in the admissions office of an unnamed elite liberal arts college.

Perhaps more than anything, the book drives home the message that higher education--particularly the elite private college--is a business, and admissions officers look for students who will boost the institution's prestige for a minimal cost. As they pore over the files of prospective students, the officers prioritize "free" students over ones who need financial aid. They also look for students who will increase the school's status: talented athletes, minorities, and students whose parents are deemed likely donors or whose (prestigious) high schools the college seeks to woo. In some cases, the student's looks and popularity even come into play, since the admissions officers hope popular kids would advertise the college among their friends. Although Stevens portrays the admissions officers in a positive light--and there are times where an officer will advocate for a more "costly" student--they don't hesitate to divide the students into two bottom-line-driven groups: "good kids" and "schlocky kids."

It is well-known that most schools make it a priority to recruit quality student athletes (particularly football players), even those whose academics aren't the greatest. Stevens devotes an interesting chapter to this issue, explaining how the prestige of a given college is determined in part by which rivals it meets on the football field. He also discusses the role college sports have long played in fostering the community's identification with the school and in adding an aura of fun and masculinity to the otherwise un-masculine academic world.

In recent decades, diversity stats have also played an important role in colleges' prestige. Although this is a positive development on the surface, the book shows how schools comply with the letter of affirmative action, but not necessarily the spirit. While the admissions officers go to great lengths to recruit minority students, the minorities they recruit come from affluent backgrounds, not from disadvantaged communities in the inner city or rural areas. As a result, the college can boost its diversity numbers, but the truly disadvantaged--poor and working class minorities, whites, and children of immigrants--remain left behind.

Stevens illustrates how higher education is not just a business, but an instrument of social reproduction--in other words, it allows elites to pass their wealth and status on to their children, while acting as a gatekeeper. Further, he shows just how many obstacles stand in the way of young people outside the elite as they navigate the college admissions system. These obstacles are social as much as they are financial. From birth, affluent children are groomed for elite college admission; their parents ferry them to after school activities and sports camps, pay for their test prep courses, and enroll them in prestigious private high schools. In turn, sports coaches and guidance counselors forge mutually beneficial relationships (in admissions lingo, they "get a thing going") with admissions officers. Because of this combination of economic and social factors, students from elite backgrounds enter the game at an enormous advantage.

This book is valuable reading for anyone interested in higher education and social stratification, or for anyone who has simply wondered what goes on behind the imposing gates of elite college admissions.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful look at admissions process and its implications, October 14, 2008

By	Thomas - See all my reviews

Creating a Class is an excellent read. It's much more thoughtful than many other books on college admissions, as its intention is not only to give its reader an "insider's view" of competitive admissions (based on Stevens' work in the admissions office of a small college), but to call into question how the admissions process may help create and sustain class inequities. As a result, I left the book with not only a better sense of how selective institutions make their decisions, but with a set of questions (some troublesome) about the class implications of the process.

Although the book raises some important sociological questions, it's not an overly 'academic' read. I found Mitchell's prose clear, easy to read, and often eloquent without being unnecessarily flowery. In fact, Mitchell's book is quite fun because his questions are raised through the characters (students, administrators, counselors, coaches, etc.) he encounters during his field research; this gives the book a novel-like feel. He treats those characters fairly and warmly.

Highly recommened for those who are going through the process (either as students or parents) or for those who have an interest in educational sociology.