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Creating a Class
College Admissions and the Education of Elites
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Mitchell L. Stevens
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2009
About this book
For a year and a half, Stevens worked in the admissions office of a New England college known for high academic standards, a 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 more complicated than most imagine.
Reviews
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
-- Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard University
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
-- 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
-- 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
-- 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
-- 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
-- Education Week
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 1, 2009
eBook ISBN:
9780674044036
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
320
eBook ISBN:
9780674044036
Audience(s) for this book
Professional and scholarly;
