Overview

For decades, leaders in higher education have voiced their intention to expand college education to include disadvantaged groups. Colleges have embraced and defended public policies that push back against discrimination and make college more affordable. And yet, as the economist Charles Clotfelter shows, America's system of undergraduate education was unequal in 1970 and is even more so today. In Unequal Colleges in the Age of Disparity, Clotfelter presents quantitative comparisons across selective and less selective colleges from the 1970s to the present, in exploration of three themes: diversity, competition, and inequality. Diversity shows itself in the variety of colleges' objectives but also in the disparity of the material and human resources at their disposal. Competition operates through both the supply and the demand sides of the market, with college admissions becoming more meritocratic even as the most desirable colleges choose to contend fiercely for top-tier students rather than accommodate rising numbers of qualified applicants. Clotfelter shows that exclusive colleges have also benefited disproportionately from America's growing income inequality. As their endowments have ballooned, their students have become more academically advantaged, owing in part to the extraordinary steps affluent families take to groom their children for college admission. Clotfelter finds that despite a revolution in civil rights, billions spent on financial aid, and the commitment of colleges to greater equality, stratification has grown starker. Top colleges cater largely to children of elites.

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Most people connected to higher education are instinctively egalitarian, yet they work and study in a system that is saturated with inequality--in admissions, in resources, in prestige, and in outcomes. Clotfelter tells the story of these inequalities in a dispassionate and accessible way, but with exceptional lucidity and deep knowledge.--Michael S. McPherson, President of the Spencer Foundation A deeply researched, stimulating, and thoughtful analysis of the role of undergraduate education in America in sustaining the growing inequalities of our nation. A treasure trove of relevant data and careful analysis.--Harold T. Shapiro, Princeton University Clotfelter shows how the pattern of undergraduate education in the U.S. has, in the last four decades, done more to perpetuate economic inequality than to provide pathways for upward mobility. His analysis should concern anyone who cares about higher education, and spur efforts to address this complex issue more aggressively than we have in the past.--Nannerl O. Keohane, Princeton University Clotfelter is one of the best-regarded researchers in the economics of education. His book is a must-read for anybody interested in how the undergraduate education market in the U.S. has evolved over the last forty years.--Brian P. McCall, University of Michigan All of Charles Clotfelter's books about higher education have been home runs, but Unequal Colleges in the Age of Disparity is a grand slam. Wonderfully well written, it should be read by everyone concerned with growing income inequality in the U.S. and the role our evolving higher education system has played in contributing to it.--Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Cornell University

Clotfelter is one of the best-regarded researchers in the economics of education. His book is a must-read for anybody interested in how the undergraduate education market in the U.S. has evolved over the last forty years.--Brian P. McCall, University of Michigan

Author Information

Charles T. Clotfelter is Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy Studies at Duke University.

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