Sociology of Education

Rosenbaum finds that the failure of disadvantaged students are due to their lack of realization that high school grades greatly influence their ultimate educational attainment. Many students hold the “no-penalty” belief that they can attain their plan even if they do poorly at high school and this reduce their efforts in high school. However, multivariate analysis suggests that high school performance does matter a lot in the ultimate achievement of students. Thus “college-for-all” norms may achieve adverse effect. Dougherty and Kienzl analyze two dataset to examine the equity of community college transfer. It is found that high SES students have significantly higher transfer rates, partly due to advantages in precollege academic preparation and educational aspiration. It is also found that older college entrants are much likely to transfer, and though women and nonwhites differ from men and whites in transfer rates, these differences are not statistically significant. It is suggested that we should improve high school preparation, reduce the gap in aspirations at matriculation between community college entrants of different SES and age, as well as reduce transfer gap between occupational and academic majors.

The emphasis in college admission on balancing grade and extracurricular activities seems to be a more comprehensive and flexible way at the first glance. However, as is explained by Karabel, such formula came into existence in the 1920s because the Anglo-Saxon are uncomfortable with the number Jewish are admitted when college matriculation was solely grade-based. America is well-known for American dream, however, the secret of its college admission seems more in favor of conflict theory.