Positioning for elite and quasi-elite colleges and universities in the united states: Parent and student strategies for “maintaining advantage” in new economic and postsecondary context

The United States, like many other countries, has witnessed a dramatic increase in wealth inequality since at least the 1980s. Among its other traditional roles, education often has served as a vehicle for individual mobility in the US, allowing successful students to maintain or improve their positions in society. As wealth inequality increases, however, education’s ability to fulfill this role becomes more limited. Competition for admission to the most prestigious colleges and universities – those considered most likely to provide passports to the upper strata of society – increases accordingly. This chapter analyzes the college admissions experiences of secondary school students and their families. Findings indicate that students, school staff, and families spend tremendous amounts of time and energy crafting the student as college applicant in an effort to increase the chances of admission to highly desirable – and highly selective – colleges and universities. In other words, anxieties about class position in increasingly stratified society appear to manifest themselves in the “class work” undertaken to offer a student the opportunity to maintain or improve his/her position.