Overview

"Strengthening affirmative action programs and fighting discrimination present challenges to America's best private and public universities. US college enrollments swelled from 2.6 million students in 1955 to 17.5 million by 2005. Ivy League universities, specifically Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, face significant challenges in maintaining their professed goal to educate a reasonable number of students from all ethnic, racial, religious, and socio-economic groups while maintaining the loyalty of their alumni. College admissions officers in these elite universities have the daunting task of selecting a balanced student body. Added to their challenges, the economic recession of 2008-2009 negatively impacted potential applicants from lower-income families. Evidence suggests that high Standard Aptitude Test (SAT) scores are correlated with a family's socioeconomic status. Thus, the problem of selecting the ""best"" students from an ever-increasing pool of applicants may render standardized admissions tests a less desirable selection mechanism. The next admissions battle may be whether well-endowed universities should commit themselves to a form of class-based affirmative action in order to balance the socioeconomic advantages of well-to-do families. Such a policy would improve prospects for students who may have ambitions for an education that is beyond their reach without preferential treatment. As in past decades, admissions policies may remain a question of balances and preferences. Nevertheless, the elite universities are handling admission decisions with determination and far less prejudice than in earlier eras."

Full Product Details

Author:   Marcia Synnott
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Inc
Imprint:   Routledge
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.635kg
ISBN:  

9781412814614

ISBN 10:   1412814618
Pages:   386
Publication Date:   30 September 2013
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Reviews

<p> Anyone interested in the ways Harvard, Yale, and Princeton have responded to the twentieth and early twenty-first century challenges to enroll students more like the U.S. population as a whole, will need to read this book. Professor Synnott's exhaustive research from a wide array of sources demonstrates the degrees to which Jewish, black, women, disabled, LGBTQ students, and other minority groups have been admitted to these elite institutions, and how they have fared once enrolled. She illuminates the manner in which changes in federal policies, for example, don't ask, don't tell in the military, have impacts on campus programs and student life. Rather than advocating for an overall change in the way elite institutions admit students, Synnott lets the reader decide whether the current approach, favoring children of alumni/ae but also awarding generous need-based financial aid, is consonant with values of meritocracy. <p>--Leslie Miller-Bernal, professor emeritus of sociology, Wells College, and co-editor of Going Coed: Women's Experiences in Formerly Men's Colleges and Universities, 1950-2000.

-Professor Synnott's exhaustive research from a wide array of sources demonstrates the degrees to which Jewish, black, women, disabled, LGBTQ students, and other minority groups have been admitted to these elite institutions, and how they have fared once enrolled. She illuminates the manner in which changes in federal policies, for example, -don't ask, don't tell- in the military, have impacts on campus programs and student life. Rather than advocating for an overall change in the way elite institutions admit students, Synnott lets the reader decide whether the current approach, favoring children of alumni/ae but also awarding generous need-based financial aid, is consonant with values of meritocracy.- --Leslie Miller-Bernal, professor emeritus of sociology, Wells College, and co-editor of Going Coed -This is an exhaustive study of admissions practices at Harvard, Yale and Princeton from the 1920s through the present. Marcia Synnott is the authority on this topic. This well researched book, with previously untapped sources, includes not only the discriminatory admissions policies and practices toward Jews, Catholics, African Americans, and later GLBTQ and disabled students. Synnott shows the transformation of admissions policies from the exclusion of Jews to their now serving as presidents of these institutions. This is a significant study and brings the discussion of admissions at the most selective institutions in the nation up to date.- --Linda M. Perkins, associate university professor and director of applied women's studies and Africana Studies Certificate Program, Claremont Graduate University -This is the Big Book about the Big Three. Marcia Graham Synnott's Student Diversity at the Big Three is a timely, masterful sequel to her pioneering study of selective admissions, The Half Opened Door. The continuity in her two major books is a tone of dry wit without dry data. Synnott fuses a solid understated writing style that is animated by thorough archival research and inclusion of essential secondary sources. Her accounts of the changing complexities and priorities of selective admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton will prompt a chorus of enthusiastic readers to exclaim that Synnott, the historian of access and exclusion in American higher education, is at the top of the class and head of the pack.- --John Thelin, author of A History of American Higher Education -Student Diversity at the Big Three is a welcome complement to The Half-Opened Door, Marcia Graham Synnott's pioneering history of minority student admissions to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. This meticulously researched book insightfully delineates the gradual, often grudging, and sometimes failed attempts by the Big Three universities to overcome their abysmal histories of race, ethnic, and gender discrimination. Not solely an administrative history, the volume captures the experiences of minorities who ventured onto these oft-hostile campuses. Yet for those who graduated despite the challenges of student life, Professor Synnott concludes, Big Three membership had its privileges.- --Harold S. Wechsler, professor of education, New York University Professor Synnott's exhaustive research from a wide array of sources demonstrates the degrees to which Jewish, black, women, disabled, LGBTQ students, and other minority groups have been admitted to these elite institutions, and how they have fared once enrolled. She illuminates the manner in which changes in federal policies, for example, don't ask, don't tell in the military, have impacts on campus programs and student life. Rather than advocating for an overall change in the way elite institutions admit students, Synnott lets the reader decide whether the current approach, favoring children of alumni/ae but also awarding generous need-based financial aid, is consonant with values of meritocracy. --Leslie Miller-Bernal, professor emeritus of sociology, Wells College, and co-editor of Going Coed This is an exhaustive study of admissions practices at Harvard, Yale and Princeton from the 1920s through the present. Marcia Synnott is the authority on this topic. This well researched book, with previously untapped sources, includes not only the discriminatory admissions policies and practices toward Jews, Catholics, African Americans, and later GLBTQ and disabled students. Synnott shows the transformation of admissions policies from the exclusion of Jews to their now serving as presidents of these institutions. This is a significant study and brings the discussion of admissions at the most selective institutions in the nation up to date. --Linda M. Perkins, associate university professor and director of applied women's studies and Africana Studies Certificate Program, Claremont Graduate University This is the Big Book about the Big Three. Marcia Graham Synnott's Student Diversity at the Big Three is a timely, masterful sequel to her pioneering study of selective admissions, The Half Opened Door. The continuity in her two major books is a tone of dry wit without dry data. Synnott fuses a solid understated writing style that is animated by thorough archival research and inclusion of essential secondary sources. Her accounts of the changing complexities and priorities of selective admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton will prompt a chorus of enthusiastic readers to exclaim that Synnott, the historian of access and exclusion in American higher education, is at the top of the class and head of the pack. --John Thelin, author of A History of American Higher Education Student Diversity at the Big Three is a welcome complement to The Half-Opened Door, Marcia Graham Synnott's pioneering history of minority student admissions to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. This meticulously researched book insightfully delineates the gradual, often grudging, and sometimes failed attempts by the Big Three universities to overcome their abysmal histories of race, ethnic, and gender discrimination. Not solely an administrative history, the volume captures the experiences of minorities who ventured onto these oft-hostile campuses. Yet for those who graduated despite the challenges of student life, Professor Synnott concludes, Big Three membership had its privileges. --Harold S. Wechsler, professor of education, New York University Professor Synnott's exhaustive research from a wide array of sources demonstrates the degrees to which Jewish, black, women, disabled, LGBTQ students, and other minority groups have been admitted to these elite institutions, and how they have fared once enrolled. She illuminates the manner in which changes in federal policies, for example, don't ask, don't tell in the military, have impacts on campus programs and student life. Rather than advocating for an overall change in the way elite institutions admit students, Synnott lets the reader decide whether the current approach, favoring children of alumni/ae but also awarding generous need-based financial aid, is consonant with values of meritocracy. --Leslie Miller-Bernal, professor emeritus of sociology, Wells College, and co-editor of Going Coed This is an exhaustive study of admissions practices at Harvard, Yale and Princeton from the 1920s through the present. Marcia Synnott is the authority on this topic. This well researched book, with previously untapped sources, includes not only the discriminatory admissions policies and practices toward Jews, Catholics, African Americans, and later GLBTQ and disabled students. Synnott shows the transformation of admissions policies from the exclusion of Jews to their now serving as presidents of these institutions. This is a significant study and brings the discussion of admissions at the most selective institutions in the nation up to date. --Linda M. Perkins, associate university professor and director of applied women's studies and Africana Studies Certificate Program, Claremont Graduate University This is the Big Book about the Big Three. Marcia Graham Synnott's Student Diversity at the Big Three is a timely, masterful sequel to her pioneering study of selective admissions, The Half Opened Door. The continuity in her two major books is a tone of dry wit without dry data. Synnott fuses a solid understated writing style that is animated by thorough archival research and inclusion of essential secondary sources. Her accounts of the changing complexities and priorities of selective admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton will prompt a chorus of enthusiastic readers to exclaim that Synnott, the historian of access and exclusion in American higher education, is at the top of the class and head of the pack. --John Thelin, author of A History of American Higher Education Student Diversity at the Big Three is a welcome complement to The Half-Opened Door, Marcia Graham Synnott's pioneering history of minority student admissions to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. This meticulously researched book insightfully delineates the gradual, often grudging, and sometimes failed attempts by the Big Three universities to overcome their abysmal histories of race, ethnic, and gender discrimination. Not solely an administrative history, the volume captures the experiences of minorities who ventured onto these oft-hostile campuses. Yet for those who graduated despite the challenges of student life, Professor Synnott concludes, Big Three membership had its privileges. --Harold S. Wechsler, professor of education, New York University Anyone interested in the ways Harvard, Yale, and Princeton have responded to the twentieth and early twenty-first century challenges to enroll students more like the U.S. population as a whole, will need to read this book. Professor Synnott's exhaustive research from a wide array of sources demonstrates the degrees to which Jewish, black, women, disabled, LGBTQ students, and other minority groups have been admitted to these elite institutions, and how they have fared once enrolled. She illuminates the manner in which changes in federal policies, for example, don't ask, don't tell in the military, have impacts on campus programs and student life. Rather than advocating for an overall change in the way elite institutions admit students, Synnott lets the reader decide whether the current approach, favoring children of alumni/ae but also awarding generous need-based financial aid, is consonant with values of meritocracy. --Leslie Miller-Bernal, professor emeritus of sociology, Wells College, and co-editor of Going Coed: Women's Experiences in Formerly Men's Colleges and Universities, 1950-2000.

<p> Professor Synnott's exhaustive research from a wide array of sources demonstrates the degrees to which Jewish, black, women, disabled, LGBTQ students, and other minority groups have been admitted to these elite institutions, and how they have fared once enrolled. She illuminates the manner in which changes in federal policies, for example, don't ask, don't tell in the military, have impacts on campus programs and student life. Rather than advocating for an overall change in the way elite institutions admit students, Synnott lets the reader decide whether the current approach, favoring children of alumni/ae but also awarding generous need-based financial aid, is consonant with values of meritocracy. <p>--Leslie Miller-Bernal, professor emeritus of sociology, Wells College, and co-editor of Going Coed <p> This is an exhaustive study of admissions practices at Harvard, Yale and Princeton from the 1920s through the present. Marcia Synnott is the authority on this topic. This well researched book, with previously untapped sources, includes not only the discriminatory admissions policies and practices toward Jews, Catholics, African Americans, and later GLBTQ and disabled students. Synnott shows the transformation of admissions policies from the exclusion of Jews to their now serving as presidents of these institutions. This is a significant study and brings the discussion of admissions at the most selective institutions in the nation up to date. <p>--Linda M. Perkins, associate university professor and director of applied women's studies and Africana Studies Certificate Program <p> This is the Big Book about the Big Three. Marcia Graham Synnott's Student Diversity at the Big Three is a timely, masterful sequel to her pioneering study of selective admissions, The Half Opened Door. The continuity in her two major books is a tone of dry wit without dry data. Synnott fuses a solid understated writing style that is animated by thorough archival research and inclusion

Professor Synnott's exhaustive research from a wide array of sources demonstrates the degrees to which Jewish, black, women, disabled, LGBTQ students, and other minority groups have been admitted to these elite institutions, and how they have fared once enrolled. She illuminates the manner in which changes in federal policies, for example, don't ask, don't tell in the military, have impacts on campus programs and student life. Rather than advocating for an overall change in the way elite institutions admit students, Synnott lets the reader decide whether the current approach, favoring children of alumni/ae but also awarding generous need-based financial aid, is consonant with values of meritocracy. --Leslie Miller-Bernal, professor emeritus of sociology, Wells College, and co-editor of Going Coed This is an exhaustive study of admissions practices at Harvard, Yale and Princeton from the 1920s through the present. Marcia Synnott is the authority on this topic. This well researched book, with previously untapped sources, includes not only the discriminatory admissions policies and practices toward Jews, Catholics, African Americans, and later GLBTQ and disabled students. Synnott shows the transformation of admissions policies from the exclusion of Jews to their now serving as presidents of these institutions. This is a significant study and brings the discussion of admissions at the most selective institutions in the nation up to date. --Linda M. Perkins, associate university professor and director of applied women's studies and Africana Studies Certificate Program, Claremont Graduate University This is the Big Book about the Big Three. Marcia Graham Synnott's Student Diversity at the Big Three is a timely, masterful sequel to her pioneering study of selective admissions, The Half Opened Door. The continuity in her two major books is a tone of dry wit without dry data. Synnott fuses a solid understated writing style that is animated by thorough archival research and inclusion of essential secondary sources. Her accounts of the changing complexities and priorities of selective admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton will prompt a chorus of enthusiastic readers to exclaim that Synnott, the historian of access and exclusion in American higher education, is at the top of the class and head of the pack. --John Thelin, author of A History of American Higher Education Student Diversity at the Big Three is a welcome complement to The Half-Opened Door, Marcia Graham Synnott's pioneering history of minority student admissions to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. This meticulously researched book insightfully delineates the gradual, often grudging, and sometimes failed attempts by the Big Three universities to overcome their abysmal histories of race, ethnic, and gender discrimination. Not solely an administrative history, the volume captures the experiences of minorities who ventured onto these oft-hostile campuses. Yet for those who graduated despite the challenges of student life, Professor Synnott concludes, Big Three membership had its privileges. --Harold S. Wechsler, professor of education, New York University

Author Information

Marcia Synnott

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions