The Entrenched Privilege of Social Class in College Admissions

The Persistent Grip of Social Class on College Admissions - The New York Times

Below is a summary of the article.

The SAT has been criticized for being heavily influenced by an applicant’s socioeconomic background. So what about the essay, the alternative to the SAT? The essay is already the fourth most important factor in college admissions. This made it possible to study the correlation between socioeconomic background and the essay. To put the conclusion first, the essay and socioeconomic background may well be related. Perhaps the correlation is even higher than with the SAT. Essays, too, can benefit from tutoring or parental support. The subject matter of essays differs by income. On an essay prompt asking students to write about a challenge they overcame, the high-income group wrote about travel, while the low-income group wrote about economic and material insecurity. When the topic was free to choose, the high-income group picked abstract subjects such as human nature, while the low-income group chose interpersonal or family relationships. What is the purpose of college admissions, anyway? To select students who will excel in college? To help with social mobility? To maintain the hierarchy of universities? In the first place, admissions methods other than tests, such as the essay, were a product of 1920s policies designed to restrict the admission of Jewish students. Advocates of the SAT argue that essay performance has little correlation with college grades. By contrast, GPA and the SAT clearly do correlate with college grades. Isn’t it time for universities to be honest? Could it be that they want the donations of the upper class, who write good essays? Because of the coronavirus pandemic, universities are short on money. If admissions methods other than the SAT gain ground, it will become even murkier what universities really want.

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