It is widely assumed&nbsp;that admission to elite U.S. universities is based solely on academic&nbsp;merit—the best and brightest are admitted to Harvard, Yale, and their peer institutions as determined by test scores and GPA, and not by&nbsp;lineage or family income. But does reality support those expectations?&nbsp;Or are admissions governed by a logic that rewards socioeconomic status&nbsp;while disguising it as personal merit? The Power of Privilege examines the nexus between social class and admissions at America's top&nbsp;colleges from the vantage point of Yale University, a key actor in the history of higher education. It is a documented history of the&nbsp;institutional gatekeepers, confident of the validity of socially biased&nbsp;measures of merit, seeking to select tomorrow's leadership class from&nbsp;among their economically privileged clientele. Acceptance in prestigious&nbsp;colleges still remains beyond the reach of most students except those from high-income professional families. Ultimately, the author suggests&nbsp;reforms that would move America's top schools toward becoming genuine&nbsp;academic meritocracies.

The Power of Privilege: Yale and America's Elite Colleges PDF

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