Photo by: Getty Images College Admissions
A Game of Privilege?
The college admissions process has changed significantly in recent years, particularly for students seeking to get into the nation's most elite universities. Should these schools' admissions policies favor athletes and children of alumni? Should low-income and minority students be a priority? Or should top schools only enroll the smartest and most academically accomplished? We also talk about the obstacles and misconceptions facing students who attend community college. Tune in to this edition of Justice Talking as we ask how money and privilege affect the college admissions process and whether reforms are necessary.
There are more than 17 million students in higher education in America. That's a growth rate of 21 percent over the last decade. Seventeen-year-old Joshua Adams wants to be one of them. To make his dream of college a reality he has sought the help of Paul Griffin, founder of a group called City at Peace.
Who Gets In and Why?
Host Margot Adler talks with journalist Peter Schmidt about the demographics of college attendance and how changes to financial aid affect college enrollment.
Peter Schmidt is a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, where he covers affirmative action and other issues related to college access. His coverage of affirmative action won a special citation for beat reporting from the Education Writers Association in 2006. He is also the author of Color and Money: How Rich White Kids Are Winning the War over College Affirmative Action.
Reforms at Amherst College
Reporter Amy Mayer reveals a new effort by Amherst College to attract students from more modest backgrounds by doing away with all student loans and offering grants from the college's own resources.
Discussion: Access to Higher Education
Host Margot Adler is joined by education researcher and policymaker Ross Weiner and public universities representative Peter McPherson to discuss how public universities can improve access for low-income students.
Ross Wiener is vice president for program and policy at The Education Trust. He was previously a trial attorney in the Educational Opportunities Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.
M. Peter McPherson is president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, the nation's oldest higher education association. From 1993 to 2004, he was the president of Michigan State University.
Who Needs the Ivy League?
Host Margot Adler interviews researcher Stacy Dale about a study she co-authored on whether attending an elite university affects a student's future earnings.
Stacy Dale is a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research. In 2000 she co-authored the study Estimating the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College with Princeton economics professor Alan Krueger.
Host Margot Adler talks with professor Thomas Bailey about the importance of community colleges.
Thomas R. Bailey is the George and Abby O'Neill Professor of Economics and Education in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he established the Community College Research Center. He specializes in education, labor economics, and econometrics, and is the co-editor of Defending the Community College Equity Agenda.
Community College Voices
Justice Talking producer Viet Le visited LaGuardia Community College in New York City. He spoke with Donna VanBrackle, a fourth-semester nursing student who enrolled after 15 years working as a lab technician, and Andrea Torres, a single mother and honors student.
Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)
Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)
American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers
National Association for College Admissions Counseling
National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education
Center for Equal Opportunity
Federal Pell Grant Program
Student Aid on the Web
The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton
by Jerome Karabel
The New Class Society: Goodbye American Dream?
by Robert Perucci and Earl Wysong
The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges -- and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates
by Daniel Golden
The Rise of the Meritocracy
by Geoff Dench (editor)
Race and Public School Assignments