Inequality and Prestige: The Dark Side of Ivy-Plus Colleges

Even people who take a deep interest in Ivy League colleges (or Ivies) may not be familiar with their nicknames. I’m referring to not the official ones (Tigers, Bulldogs, Lions, Bears, etc) but to the tongue-in-cheek nicknames, such as Ivy’s Ivy for Harvard. The others are Classic Ivy (Yale), Preppy Ivy (Princeton), Urbane Ivy (Columbia), Hip Ivy (Brown), Social Ivy (UPenn), Rugged Ivy (Dartmouth), and Everyman Ivy (Cornell). And there’s another nickname – a scathing one, referring to all such 'prestigious' universities – that appears on the cover of a book. Released in 2022, this work by Evan Mandery is titled Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us.Every year during this time, hundreds of thousands of graduating high schoolers in the US and abroad are anxiously waiting to hear if they’ve been accepted by top American universities. None is more coveted than Ivy-Plus colleges, which include the eight Ivies and four other private institutions (Stanford, MIT, the University of Chicago, and Duke).Although there are hundreds of reputable American universities where undergraduates can get a fine education, a huge number of students would rather attend one of these highly selective, brand-name colleges. If you’re not familiar with the admission process, the jargon can be intimidating. 'Early Decision' (binding) and 'Early Action' (nonbinding) applicants would have received the verdict by now, while Rolling and Regular decision applicants can expect to hear from colleges any day. It’s a nerve-racking time for countless teenagers and their parents, not least because the number of applications in recent years has shot up dramatically to these 12 colleges, where the acceptance rate is as low as three per cent or four per cent in a few cases.This will seem unremarkable to the million or more aspirants who take the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) in India every year. The acceptance rate there is 0.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent, which explains why people say, “It’s harder to get into IIT than MIT.” Not everybody is impressed by Ivy-Plus colleges. In his book, Mandery, who earned his bachelor’s and law degree from an Ivy League university, interestingly enough, argues that these top institutions perpetuate income inequality and promote social segregation. And economists Raj Chetty, David J Deming, and John N Friedman have shown that students from high-income families are more than twice as likely to get into Ivy-Plus universities. “Less than one per cent of Americans attend these 12 colleges, yet they account for 13.4 per cent of those in the top 0.1 per cent of the income distribution, a quarter of US Senators, half of all Rhodes scholars, and three-fourths of Supreme Court justices appointed in the last half-century,” they note.Their “big data” analysis shows that factors like legacy admissions, extracurriculars, and athletic recruitment give high-income applicants an undue advantage. Not to forget, the end of affirmative action has made the path harder for underrepresented minorities like African Americans. Also worth mentioning: A recent report in Nature journal says that the odds of attending an Ivy-Plus college are lower for South Asian American applicants than white applicants by 49 per cent. A major cause could be legacy admissions. Changing the admissions policies at Ivy-Plus universities could substantially increase the socioeconomic diversity of our future leaders, according to these economists, who all teach at – surprise! – Ivy League colleges. Top-tier colleges do extend financial assistance (and even a full ride) to needy students who have been accepted. But what about the admittees who don’t qualify for aid? Rather than go to a lesser-known or rated university that offers a scholarship to attract them, they may take out a burdensome loan. Such is the power and desirability of Ivy-Plus. These bright students get a first-rate education, but they pay the Ivy-Plus sticker price instead of going to college for free.Indian immigrants are, unsurprisingly, awed by these top 12 private institutions. They’re drawn not just by the brand name – but more importantly, by the excellent academic programmes, renowned professors, outstanding facilities, and the friendships their kids can cultivate there. Full disclosure: In 2022, I became one of those immigrant parents. That year, on a campus tour for families of incoming freshers, I felt as if I were on a movie set. I marvelled at the three-century-old institution’s landscape and buildings, whose architectural style ranges from neo-Gothic to contemporary. The student body, I was relieved to see, is diverse. In the bookstore, although I skipped the branded clothing, I couldn’t resist buying a hat (which I don’t wear) and a few mugs inscribed with the university’s name and logo. My son’s classmates include students from India. Unlike in earlier decades, now there are large numbers of Indian undergraduates as well on US college campuses.India is the largest exporter of students, and the US issued an all-time high of 268,923 visas to Indians in the academic year 2022-23. A book titled Indian Roots, Ivy Admits: 85 Essays That Got Indian Students into the Ivy League and Stanford, published in 2021, became a bestseller in India. For many people, however, it’s another book – Frank Bruni’s Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania – that’s more illuminating. Bruni, who teaches journalism at Duke, is a contributing columnist for The New York Times. He argues that the college students get into often matters far less than how they do there – and crucially, what they do afterwards. Brand names can only do so much. A Fortune 500 list from last year reveals that only 11.8 per cent of Fortune 100 CEOs got their undergraduate degree from the Ivies. Joe Biden has no connection to Ivy-Plus, and neither did Ronald Reagan. Among the stories Bruni shares is one about a student who didn’t get into even one of the top colleges he preferred. Initially disappointed, he got motivated after gaining confidence at a lower-tier college. Feeling like “the big fish in a small pond,” he thrived there and went on to excel in his chosen profession. “They’re prodded to be scrappier, and that can turn into its own advantage,” Bruni writes, referring to such students. (Murali Kamma is a writer and managing editor based in Atlanta, Georgia. This is an opinion article and the views expressed are the author's own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)

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Inequality and Prestige: The Dark Side of Ivy-Plus Colleges

Top-tier colleges do extend financial aid to needy students. But what about the admittees who don’t qualify?

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