The American postsecondary system is more and more stratified by race, ethnicity and family income, especially as acceptance rates decline.
Half of the annual enrollments are now concentrated in what the Barron’s rankings call the “competitive four-year colleges” and the other half of annual enrollments are concentrated in community colleges and other sub-baccalaureate institutions at the bottom of the selectivity tiers.
Ultimately, this leads to diminished access, and some students are left out of the system entirely. For elite students, it is not the choice between Yale and jail. There are hundreds of schools lining up to take Ivy League rejectees.
For less-advantaged students, however, not getting to attend college means a lifetime of low-wage jobs instead of economic and social mobility. And that is a future we cannot accept.
