Creating a Class: College Admissions and the Education of Elites

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.

Table of Contents:
Contents Introduction 1. A School in a Garden 2. Numbers 3. Travel 4. Sports 5. Race 6. Decisions 7. Yield 8. The Aristocracy of Merit Notes Acknowledgments Index

About the Author :
Mitchell L. Stevens is Associate Professor of Education and (by courtesy) Sociology at Stanford University. He is the author of Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement.

Review :
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 20080501 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 20080401 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 20071031