1932

Abstract

Graduate and professional education play an increasingly important role in economic inequality and elite formation in the United States, but sociologists have not subjected stratification in and through graduate education to the same level of scrutiny recently applied to undergraduate and subbaccalaureate education. In this review, we discuss how prominent stratification theories might be extended to studies of the role of graduate and professional education, and we review research about stratification at junctures along student pathways into and through postbaccalaureate education to the labor market. Especially in doctoral and professional education, we find persistent stratification, including pronounced educational inheritance and disparities in participation and degree attainment by race/ethnicity and gender. We propose future directions for inquiry, highlighting unanswered questions and conceptual issues concerning how the field of and pathways through postbaccalaureate education contribute to social stratification.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-081715-074324
2017-07-31
2024-03-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/soc/43/1/annurev-soc-081715-074324.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-081715-074324&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Abbott A. 2014. The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  2. Acemoglu D, Autor D. 2012. What does human capital do? A review of Goldin and Katz's The Race between Education and Technology. J. Econ. Lit. 50:426–63 [Google Scholar]
  3. Adams AJ, Hancock T. 2000. Work experience as a predictor of MBA performance. Coll. Stud. J. 34:211–17 [Google Scholar]
  4. Allum J. 2014. Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2003 to 2013 Washington, DC: Counc. Grad. Sch.
  5. Alon S. 2009. The evolution of class inequality in higher education: competition, exclusion, and adaptation. Am. Sociol. Rev. 74:731–55 [Google Scholar]
  6. Altonji JG, Arcidiacono P, Maurel A. 2015. The analysis of field choice in college and graduate school: determinants and wage effects NBER Work. Pap. 21655, Natl. Bur. Econ. Res. Cambridge, MA:
  7. Arcidiacono P, Cooley J, Hussey A. 2008. The economic returns to an MBA. Int. Econ. Rev. 49:873–99 [Google Scholar]
  8. Arcidiacono P, Lovenheim M. 2016. Affirmative action and the quality–fit trade-off. J. Econ. Lit. 54:3–51 [Google Scholar]
  9. Armstrong EA, Hamilton L. 2013. Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  10. Astin AW. 1993. What Matters in College? Four Critical Years Revisited San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
  11. Attiyeh G, Attiyeh R. 1997. Testing for bias in graduate school admissions. J. Hum. Resour. 32:524–48 [Google Scholar]
  12. Autor DH. 2014. Skills, education, and the rise of earnings inequality among the “other 99 percent.”. Science 344:843–51 [Google Scholar]
  13. Bar DA, Wanat S, Gonzalez M. 2007. Racial and ethnic differences in students’ selection of a doctoral program to attend from those offering admission: the case of biomedical sciences. J. Women Minor. Sci. Eng. 13:23–36 [Google Scholar]
  14. Barr R, Dreeben R. 1983. How Schools Work Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  15. Bastedo MN, Jaquette O. 2011. Running in place: low-income students and the dynamics of higher education stratification. Educ. Eval. Policy Anal. 33:318–39 [Google Scholar]
  16. Becker GS. 1962. Investment in human capital: a theoretical analysis. J. Political Econ. 70:9–49 [Google Scholar]
  17. Bedard K, Herman DA. 2008. Who goes to graduate/professional school? The importance of economic fluctuations, undergraduate field, and ability. Econ. Educ. Rev. 27:197–210 [Google Scholar]
  18. Berg HM, Ferber MA. 1983. Men and women graduate students: Who succeeds and why?. J. High. Educ. 54:629–48 [Google Scholar]
  19. Berrey E. 2015. The Enigma of Diversity: The Language of Race and the Limits of Racial Justice Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  20. Bersola SH, Stolzenberg EB, Love J, Fosnacht K. 2014. Understanding admitted doctoral students’ institutional choices: student experiences versus faculty and staff perceptions. Am. J. Educ. 120:515–43 [Google Scholar]
  21. Bielby R, Posselt JR, Jaquette O, Bastedo MN. 2014. Why are women underrepresented in elite colleges and universities? A non-linear decomposition analysis. Res. High. Educ. 55:735–60 [Google Scholar]
  22. Blau PM, Duncan OD. 1967. The American Occupational Structure New York: Free Press
  23. Bonifazi DZ, Crespy SD, Rieker P. 1997. Value of a master's degree for gaining admission to doctoral programs in psychology. Teach. Psychol. 24:176–82 [Google Scholar]
  24. Bound J, Turner S, Walsh P. 2009. Internationalization of US doctorate education NBER Work. Pap. 14792, Natl. Bur. Econ. Res. Cambridge, MA:
  25. Bourdieu P. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  26. Bourdieu P, Passeron J-C. 1990. Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture London: Sage
  27. Bowen WG, Rudenstine NL. 2014. In Pursuit of the PhD Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  28. Bowles S, Gintis H. 1976. Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life New York: Basic
  29. Bowles S, Gintis H. 2002. Schooling in Capitalist America revisited. Sociol. Educ. 75:1–18 [Google Scholar]
  30. Brand JE, Halaby CN. 2006. Regression and matching estimates of the effects of elite college attendance on educational and career achievement. Soc. Sci. Res. 35:749–70 [Google Scholar]
  31. Braxton JM, Nordvall RC. 1988. Quality of graduate department origin of faculty and its relationship to undergraduate course examination questions. Res. High. Educ. 28:145–59 [Google Scholar]
  32. Brazziel WF. 1992. Older students and doctoral production. Rev. High. Educ. 15:449–49 [Google Scholar]
  33. Brear P, Dorrian J, Luscri G. 2008. Preparing our future counselling professionals: gatekeeping and the implications for research. Couns. Psychother. Res. 8:93–101 [Google Scholar]
  34. Breen R. 2010. Educational expansion and social mobility in the 20th century. Soc. Forces 89:365–88 [Google Scholar]
  35. Breen R, Luijkx R, Müller W, Pollak R. 2009. Nonpersistent inequality in educational attainment: evidence from eight European countries. Am. J. Sociol. 114:1475–521 [Google Scholar]
  36. Brint S, Karabel J. 1989. The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900–1985 New York: Oxford Univ. Press
  37. Burris V. 2004. The academic caste system: prestige hierarchies in PhD exchange networks. Am. Sociol. Rev. 69:239–64 [Google Scholar]
  38. Campos P. 2012. The crisis of the American law school. Univ. Mich. J. Law Reform 46:177–223 [Google Scholar]
  39. Carnevale AP, Rose SJ, Cheah B. 2011. The College Payoff: Education, Occupations and Lifetime Earnings Washington, DC: Georgetown Univ. Cent. Educ. Workforce
  40. Carter DF. 1999. The impact of institutional choice and environments on African American and white students’ degree expectations. Res. High. Educ. 40:17–41 [Google Scholar]
  41. Chen R, Bahr PR. 2012. Investigating the effects of undergraduate indebtedness on graduate school application and enrollment Presented at Annu. Meet. Assoc. Study High. Educ. Las Vegas:
  42. Clark BR. 1972. The organizational saga in higher education. Adm. Sci. Q. 17:178–84 [Google Scholar]
  43. Clauset A, Arbesman S, Larremore DB. 2015. Systematic inequality and hierarchy in faculty hiring networks. Sci. Adv. 1:e1400005 [Google Scholar]
  44. Coleman JS. 1961. The Adolescent Society: The Social Life of the Teenager and Its Impact on Education New York: Free Press
  45. Collins R. 1979. The Credential Society: An Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification New York: Academic Press
  46. Cureton EE, Cureton LW, Bishop R. 1949. Prediction of success in graduate study of psychology at the University of Tennessee. Am. Psychol. 4:361–62 [Google Scholar]
  47. Dale SB, Krueger AB. 2014. Estimating the effects of college characteristics over the career using administrative earnings data. J. Hum. Resour. 49:323–58 [Google Scholar]
  48. Davis A, Kimball W, Gould E. 2015. The Class of 2015: Despite an Improving Economy, Young Grads Still Face an Uphill Climb Washington, DC: Econ. Policy Inst.
  49. Dela Cruz AJ. 2012. Women and graduate program choice: the decision to apply to full-time MBA programs PhD thesis, Univ. Calif. Los Angeles:
  50. Delisle J. 2014. The Graduate Student Debt Review Washington, DC: New Am. Found.
  51. Dobbin F, Schrage D, Kalev A. 2015. Rage against the iron cage: the varied effects of bureaucratic personnel reforms on diversity. Am. Sociol. Rev. 80:1014–44 [Google Scholar]
  52. Dreeben R. 1968. On What Is Learned in School Reading, PA: Addison-Wesley
  53. Dreher GF, Ryan KC. 2002. Evaluating MBA-program admissions criteria: the relationship between pre-MBA work experience and post-MBA career outcomes. Res. High. Educ. 43:727–44 [Google Scholar]
  54. Dunleavy DM, Kroopnick MH, Dowd KW, Searcy CA, Zhao X. 2013. The predictive validity of the MCAT exam in relation to academic performance through medical school: a national cohort study of 2001–2004 matriculants. Acad. Med. 88:666–71 [Google Scholar]
  55. Durkheim E. 1951. Suicide: A Study in Sociology Glencoe, IL: Free Press
  56. Dynarski SM. 2015. Why small student debt can mean big problems. New York Times Sept. 1, p. A3
  57. Ehrenberg RG, Jakubson GH, Groen JA, So E, Price J. 2007. Inside the black box of doctoral education: what program characteristics influence doctoral students’ attrition and graduation probabilities?. Educ. Eval. Policy Anal. 29:134–50 [Google Scholar]
  58. Eide ER, Hilmer MJ, Showalter MH. 2016. Is it where you go or what you study? The relative influence of selectivity and college major on earnings. Contemp. Econ. Policy 34:37–46 [Google Scholar]
  59. Ekstrom RB, Goertz ME, Pollack JM, Rock DR. 1991. Undergraduate debt and participation in graduate education: the relationship between educational debt and graduate school aspirations, applications, and attendance among students with a pattern of full-time continuous postsecondary education ETS Res. Rep. GREB-86-05R, Educ. Test. Serv. Princeton, NJ:
  60. Elman C. 2012. The midlife years. Handbook of Sociology of Aging RA Settersten Jr., JL Angel 245–61 Berlin: Springer [Google Scholar]
  61. Elman C, O'Rand AM. 2004. The race is to the swift: socioeconomic origins, adult education, and wage attainment. Am. J. Sociol. 110:123–60 [Google Scholar]
  62. England P, Allison P, Li S, Mark N, Thompson J. et al. 2007. Why are some academic fields tipping toward female? The sex composition of U.S. fields of doctoral degree receipt, 1971–2002. Sociol. Educ. 80:23–42 [Google Scholar]
  63. English D, Umbach PD. 2016. Graduate school choice: an examination of individual and institutional effects. Rev. High. Educ. 39:173–211 [Google Scholar]
  64. Espino MM. 2014. Exploring the role of community cultural wealth in graduate school access and persistence for Mexican American PhDs. Am. J. Educ. 120:545–74 [Google Scholar]
  65. Ethington CA, Smart JC. 1986. Persistence to graduate education. Res. High. Educ. 24:287–303 [Google Scholar]
  66. Felmlee DH. 1988. Returning to school and women's occupational attainment. Sociol. Educ. 61:29–41 [Google Scholar]
  67. Gamoran A. 1987. The stratification of high school learning opportunities. Sociol. Educ. 60:135–55 [Google Scholar]
  68. Gandara P. 1995. Over the Ivy Walls: The Educational Mobility of Low-Income Chicanos Albany, NY: SUNY Press
  69. Garces LM. 2012. Racial diversity, legitimacy, and the citizenry: the impact of affirmative action bans on graduate school enrollment. Rev. High. Educ. 36:93–132 [Google Scholar]
  70. Gardner SK, Holley KA. 2011. “Those invisible barriers are real”: the progression of first-generation students through doctoral education. Equity Excell. Educ. 44:77–92 [Google Scholar]
  71. Garth BG. 2013. Crises, crisis rhetoric, and competition in legal education: a sociological perspective on the (latest) crisis of the legal profession and legal education. Stanford Law Policy Rev 24:503–32 [Google Scholar]
  72. Gartner JD. 1986. Antireligious prejudice in admissions to doctoral programs in clinical psychology. Prof. Psychol. Res. Pract. 17:473–75 [Google Scholar]
  73. Gasman M, Hirschfeld A, Vultaggio J. 2008. “Difficult yet rewarding”: the experiences of African American graduate students in education at an Ivy League institution. J. Divers. High. Educ. 1:126–38 [Google Scholar]
  74. Gerber TP, Cheung SY. 2008. Horizontal stratification in postsecondary education: forms, explanations, and implications. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 34:299–318 [Google Scholar]
  75. Golde CM. 2005. The role of the department and discipline in doctoral student attrition: Lessons from four departments. J. High. Educ. 76:669–700 [Google Scholar]
  76. Golde CM, Dore TM. 2001. At cross purposes: what the experiences of today's doctoral students reveal about doctoral education Rep., Pew Charit. Trusts Philadelphia:
  77. Greenwood J, Guner N, Kocharkov G, Santos C. 2014. Marry your like: assortative mating and income inequality. Am. Econ. Rev. 104:348–53 [Google Scholar]
  78. Greysen SR, Chen C, Mullan F. 2011. A history of medical student debt: observations and implications for the future of medical education. Acad. Med. 86:840–45 [Google Scholar]
  79. Griffin KA, Muñiz MM. 2011. The strategies and struggles of graduate diversity officers in the recruitment of doctoral students of color. Equity Excell. Educ. 44:57–76 [Google Scholar]
  80. Grodsky E. 2007. Compensatory sponsorship in higher education. Am. J. Sociol. 112:1662–712 [Google Scholar]
  81. Grodsky E, Jackson E. 2009. Social stratification in higher education. Teach. Coll. Rec. 111:2347–84 [Google Scholar]
  82. Grodsky E, Kalogrides D. 2008. The declining significance of race in college admissions decisions. Am. J. Educ. 115:1–33 [Google Scholar]
  83. Gropper DM. 2007. Does the GMAT matter for executive MBA students? Some empirical evidence. Acad. Manag. Learn. Educ. 6:206–16 [Google Scholar]
  84. Hancock T. 1999. The gender difference: validity of standardized admission tests in predicting MBA performance. J. Educ. Bus. 75:91–93 [Google Scholar]
  85. Hearn JC. 1987. Impacts of undergraduate experiences on aspirations and plans for graduate and professional education. Res. High. Educ. 27:119–41 [Google Scholar]
  86. Heller DE. 2001. Debts and Decisions: Student Loans and Their Relationship to Graduate School and Career Choice Indianapolis: Lumina Found. Educ.
  87. Hines D. 1986. Admissions criteria for ranking master's-level applicants to clinical doctoral programs. Teach. Psychol. 13:64–67 [Google Scholar]
  88. Hossler D, Vesper N, Schmit JL. 1999. Going to College: How Social, Economic, and Educational Factors Influence the Decisions Students Make Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
  89. Hout M. 1988. More universalism, less structural mobility: the American occupational structure in the 1980s. Am. J. Sociol. 93:1358–400 [Google Scholar]
  90. Jacobs JA. 1996. Gender inequality and higher education. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 22:153–85 [Google Scholar]
  91. Jencks C, Riesman D. 1968. The Academic Revolution Oxford, UK: Doubleday
  92. Johnson MT. 2013. The impact of business cycle fluctuations on graduate school enrollment. Econ. Educ. Rev. 34:122–34 [Google Scholar]
  93. Johnson-Bailey J, Valentine T, Cervero RM, Bowles TA. 2009. Rooted in the soil: the social experiences of Black graduate students at a southern research university. J. High. Educ. 80:178–203 [Google Scholar]
  94. Kalev A, Dobbin F, Kelly E. 2006. Best practices or best guesses? Assessing the efficacy of corporate affirmative action and diversity policies. Am. Sociol. Rev. 71:589–617 [Google Scholar]
  95. Karen D. 2002. Changes in access to higher education in the United States: 1980–1992. Sociol. Educ. 75:191–210 [Google Scholar]
  96. Keister L. 2014. The one percent. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 40:347–67 [Google Scholar]
  97. Kena G, Hussar W, McFarland J, de Brey C, Musu-Gillette L. et al. 2016. The Condition of Education 2016 Washington, DC: US Dep. Educ., Natl. Cent. Educ. Stat.
  98. Khan SR. 2012. The sociology of elites. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 38:361–77 [Google Scholar]
  99. Kidder WC. 2001. Does the LSAT mirror or magnify racial and ethnic differences in educational attainment? A study of equally achieving “elite” college students. Calif. Law Rev. 89:1055–124 [Google Scholar]
  100. Kleiner MM, Krueger AB. 2013. Analyzing the extent and influence of occupational licensing on the labor market. J. Labor Econ. 31:S173–202 [Google Scholar]
  101. Kuncel NR, Hezlett SA. 2007. Standardized tests predict graduate students’ success. Science 315:1080–81 [Google Scholar]
  102. Kuncel NR, Hezlett SA, Ones DS. 2001. A comprehensive meta-analysis of the predictive validity of the Graduate Record Examinations: implications for graduate student selection and performance. Psychol. Bull. 127:162–81 [Google Scholar]
  103. Lamont M. 2009. How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  104. Lang D. 1984. Education, stratification, and the academic hierarchy. Res. High. Educ. 21:329–52 [Google Scholar]
  105. Lang D. 1987. Stratification and prestige hierarchies in graduate and professional education. Sociol. Inq. 57:12–31 [Google Scholar]
  106. Laurison D, Friedman S. 2016. The class pay gap in higher professional and managerial occupations. Am. Sociol. Rev. 81:668–95 [Google Scholar]
  107. Lee JJ, Rice C. 2007. Welcome to America? International student perceptions of discrimination. High. Educ. 53:381–409 [Google Scholar]
  108. Lemieux T. 2008. The changing nature of wage inequality. J. Popul. Econ. 21:21–48 [Google Scholar]
  109. Lindley J, Machin S. 2013. The rising postgraduate wage premium. Economica 83:281–306 [Google Scholar]
  110. Lochner L. 2011. Non-production benefits of education: crime, health, and good citizenship. Handbook of the Economics of Education EA Hanushek, S Machin, L Woessmann 188–282 Amsterdam: Elsevier [Google Scholar]
  111. Lovitts BE. 1996. Who is responsible for graduate student attrition—the individual or the institution? Toward an explanation of the high and persistent rate of attrition Presented at Annu. Meet. Am. Educ. Res. Assoc New York City:
  112. Lovitts BE. 2001. Leaving the Ivory Tower: The Causes and Consequences of Departure from Doctoral Study Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield
  113. Lovitts BE, Nelson C. 2000. The hidden crisis in graduate education: attrition from PhD programs. Academe 86:44–50 [Google Scholar]
  114. Lowell BL, Salzman H, Bernstein H, Henderson E. 2009. Steady as she goes? Three generations of students through the science and engineering pipeline Presented at Annu. Meet. Assoc. Public Policy Anal. Manag Washington, DC:
  115. Lucas SR. 2001. Effectively maintained inequality: education transitions, track mobility, and social background effects. Am. J. Sociol. 106:1642–90 [Google Scholar]
  116. Malcom LE, Dowd AC. 2012. The impact of undergraduate debt on the graduate school enrollment of STEM baccalaureates. Rev. High. Educ. 35:265–305 [Google Scholar]
  117. Mare RD. 2016. Educational homogamy in two Gilded Ages: evidence from inter-generational social mobility data. Ann. Am. Acad. Political Soc. Sci. 663:117–39 [Google Scholar]
  118. Marston AR. 1971. It is time to reconsider the Graduate Record Examination. Am. Psychol. 26:653–55 [Google Scholar]
  119. McCallum CM. 2012. Understanding the relationships and experiences that contribute to African Americans’ decision to enroll in doctoral education PhD thesis, Univ. Mich Ann Arbor:
  120. Merton RK. 1968. The Matthew effect in science. Science 159:56–63 [Google Scholar]
  121. Merton RK. 1973. The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  122. Meyer JW. 1970. The charter: conditions of diffuse socialization in schools. Social Processes and Social Structures: An Introduction to Sociology RW Scott 564–78 New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston [Google Scholar]
  123. Meyer JW, Rowan B. 1977. Institutionalized organizations: formal structure as myth and ceremony. Am. J. Sociol. 83:340–63 [Google Scholar]
  124. Milkman K, Akinola M, Chugh D. 2014. Discrimination in the academy: a field experiment Work. Pap., Univ Pa./Columbia Univ./NYU:
  125. Miller C, Stassun K. 2014. A test that fails. Nature 510:303–04 [Google Scholar]
  126. Millett CM. 2003. How undergraduate loan debt affects application and enrollment in graduate or first professional school. J. High. Educ. 74:386–427 [Google Scholar]
  127. Monroe A, Quinn E, Samuelson W, Dunleavy DM, Dowd KW. 2013. An overview of the medical school admission process and use of applicant data in decision making: What has changed since the 1980s. Acad. Med. 88:672–81 [Google Scholar]
  128. Morrison T, Morrison M. 1995. A meta-analytic assessment of the predictive validity of the quantitative and verbal components of the GRE with graduate GPAs representing the criterion of graduate success. Educ. Psychol. Meas. 55:309–16 [Google Scholar]
  129. Mullen AL, Baker J. 2008. Gender, race, and ethnic segregation of science fields in US universities. J. Women Minor. Sci. Eng. 14:159–76 [Google Scholar]
  130. Mullen AL, Goyette K, Soares JA. 2003. Who goes to graduate school? Social and academic correlates of educational continuation after college. Sociol. Educ. 76:143–69 [Google Scholar]
  131. NSF (Natl. Sci. Found.). 2013. National Survey of College Graduates. Washington, DC: Natl. Sci. Found.
  132. Newman RI. 1968. GRE scores as predictors of GPA for psychology graduate students. Educ. Psychol. Meas. 28:433–36 [Google Scholar]
  133. Oakes J, Gamoran A, Page R. 1992. Curriculum differentiation: opportunities, outcomes, and meanings. Handbook of Research on Curriculum: A Project of the American Educational Research Association PW Jackson 570–608 New York: Macmillan [Google Scholar]
  134. Oh I, Schmidt FL, Shaffer JA, Le H. 2008. The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is even more valid than we thought: a new development in meta-analysis and its implications for the validity of the GMAT. Acad. Manag. Learn. Educ. 7:563–570 [Google Scholar]
  135. Ong M, Wright C, Espinosa L, Orfield G. 2011. Inside the double bind: a synthesis of empirical research on undergraduate and graduate women of color in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Harv. Educ. Rev. 81:172–209 [Google Scholar]
  136. Ott MC. 2011. Pathways to power: How did the relationship between postsecondary attainment and membership in the corporate elite change from 1977 to 2010? Presented at Annu. Meet. Assoc. Study High. Educ Charlotte, NC:
  137. Oyer P. 2006. Initial labor market conditions and long-term outcomes for economists. J. Econ. Perspect. 20:143–60 [Google Scholar]
  138. Oyer P. 2008. The making of an investment banker: stock market shocks, career choice, and lifetime income. J. Finance 63:2601–28 [Google Scholar]
  139. Oyer P, Schaefer S. 2009. The returns to attending a prestigious law school Presented at Annu. Conf. Empir. Legal Stud ., , 4th., Ithaca, NY:
  140. Pallas A. 2000. The effects of schooling on individual lives. Handbook of the Sociology of Education MT Hallinan 499–525 New York: Kluwer [Google Scholar]
  141. Pennock-Roman M. 1990. Test Validity and Language Background: A Study of Hispanic Students at Six Universities New York: Coll. Board
  142. Perna LW. 2000. Differences in the decision to attend college among African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites. J. High. Educ. 71:117–41 [Google Scholar]
  143. Perna LW. 2004. Differences in the decision to attend college among African Americans, Hispanics, and whites. J. High. Educ. 71:117–41 [Google Scholar]
  144. Pontille D, Torny D. 2010. The controversial policies of journal ratings: evaluating social sciences and humanities. Res. Eval. 19:347–60 [Google Scholar]
  145. Posselt JR. 2014. Toward inclusive excellence in graduate education: constructing merit and diversity in PhD admissions. Am. J. Educ. 120:481–514 [Google Scholar]
  146. Posselt JR. 2015a. Disciplinary logics in doctoral admissions: understanding patterns of faculty evaluation. J. High. Educ. 86:807–833 [Google Scholar]
  147. Posselt JR. 2015b. Inside Graduate Admissions: Merit, Diversity, and Faculty Gatekeeping Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  148. Posselt JR, Jaquette O, Bielby R, Bastedo MN. 2012. Access without equity: longitudinal analyses of institutional stratification by race and ethnicity, 1972–2004. Am. Educ. Res. J. 49:1112–45 [Google Scholar]
  149. Raftery AE, Hout M. 1993. Maximally maintained inequality: expansion, reform, and opportunity in Irish education, 1921–75. Sociol. Educ. 66:41–62 [Google Scholar]
  150. Reynolds JR, Johnson MK. 2011. Change in the stratification of educational expectations and their realization. Soc. Forces 90:85–109 [Google Scholar]
  151. Rivera LA. 2011. Ivies, extracurriculars, and exclusion: elite employers’ use of educational credentials. Res. Soc. Stratif. Mobil. 29:71–90 [Google Scholar]
  152. Rivera LA. 2012. Diversity within reach: recruitment versus hiring in elite firms. Ann. Am. Acad. Political Soc. Sci. 639:71–90 [Google Scholar]
  153. Rothstein J, Yoon AH. 2008. Affirmative action in law school admissions: What do racial preferences do? NBER Work. Pap. 14276, Natl. Bur. Econ. Res Cambridge, MA:
  154. Rothstein MG, Paunonen SV, Rush JC, King GA. 1994. Personality and cognitive ability predictors of performance in graduate business school. J. Educ. Psychol. 86:516–30 [Google Scholar]
  155. Ruggles S, Genadek K, Goeken R, Grover J, Sobek M. 2015. Integrated public use microdata series: version 6.0 Minneapolis: Univ. Minnesota http://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V6.0 [Crossref]
  156. Sander RH. 2004. A systemic analysis of affirmative action in American law schools. Stanford Law Rev 57:367–483 [Google Scholar]
  157. Sasson I. 2016. Trends in life expectancy and lifespan variation by educational attainment: United States, 1990–2010. Demography 53:269–93 [Google Scholar]
  158. Schneider BL, Stevenson D. 1999. The Ambitious Generation: America's Teenagers, Motivated but Directionless New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press
  159. Schofer E, Meyer JW. 2005. The worldwide expansion of higher education in the twentieth century. Am. Sociol. Rev. 70:898–920 [Google Scholar]
  160. Schultz TW. 1961. Investment in human capital. Am. Econ. Rev. 51:1–17 [Google Scholar]
  161. Schwartz CR. 2010. Earnings inequality and the changing association between spouses’ earnings. Am. J. Sociol. 115:1524–57 [Google Scholar]
  162. Schwartz CR. 2012. Trends and variation in assortative mating: causes and consequences. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 39:451–70 [Google Scholar]
  163. Seibert SE, Kraimer ML, Holtom BC, Pierotti AJ. 2013. Even the best laid plans sometimes go askew: career self-management processes, career shocks, and the decision to pursue graduate education. J. Appl. Psychol. 98:169–82 [Google Scholar]
  164. Sewell WH, Haller AO, Ohlendorf GW. 1970. The educational and early occupational status attainment process: replication and revision. Am. Sociol. Rev. 35:1014–24 [Google Scholar]
  165. Shavit Y, Arum R, Gamoran A, Menahem G. 2007. Stratification in Higher Education Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
  166. Shavit Y, Blossfeld H-P. 1993. Persistent Inequality: Changing Educational Attainment in Thirteen Countries Boulder, CO: Westview
  167. Simkovic M, McIntyre F. 2013. The economic value of a law degree Harvard Law Sch. Program Leg. Prof. Res. Pap. 2013-6 Cambridge, MA:
  168. Sireci SG, Talento-Miller E. 2006. Evaluating the predictive validity of Graduate Management Admission test scores. Educ. Psychol. Meas. 66:305–17 [Google Scholar]
  169. Slay KE, Reyes KA, Posselt JR. 2016. Bait and switch? Representation, climate and the tensions of diversity work in graduate education Presented at Annu. Meet. Am. Educ. Res. Assoc., Apr. 8–12 Washington, DC:
  170. Smith DG. 2009. Diversity's Promise for Higher Education: Making It Work Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
  171. Sowell R, Allum J, Okahana H. 2015. Doctoral Initiative on Minority Attrition and Completion Washington, DC: Counc. Grad. Sch.
  172. Spenner KI, Featherman DL. 1978. Achievement ambitions. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 4:373–420 [Google Scholar]
  173. Stevens ML. 2007. Creating a Class: College Admissions and the Education of Elites Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  174. Stevens ML, Armstrong EA, Arum R. 2008. Sieve, incubator, temple, hub: empirical and theoretical advances in the sociology of higher education. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 34:127–51 [Google Scholar]
  175. Stevens ML, Roksa J. 2011. The diversity imperative in elite admissions. Diversity in American Higher Education: Toward a More Comprehensive Approach L Stulberg, S Weinberg 63–73 New York: Routledge [Google Scholar]
  176. Stevenson A. 2009. Admissions policy and the male–female gap in post-baccalaureate school quality Work. Pap., Univ. Mich. Ann Arbor:
  177. Stolzenberg RM. 1994. Educational continuation by college graduates. Am. J. Sociol. 99:1042–77 [Google Scholar]
  178. Strayhorn TL. 2010. Money matters: the influence of financial factors on graduate student persistence. J. Stud. Financ. Aid 40:4–25 [Google Scholar]
  179. Swartz D. 2012. Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  180. Thompson J. 2013. The changing demography of wealth: demographics by wealth and wealth by demographics in the SCF Presented at Annu. Meet. Popul. Assoc. Am New Orleans:
  181. Torche F. 2011. Is a college degree still the great equalizer? Intergenerational mobility across levels of schooling in the United States. Am. J. Sociol. 117:763–807 [Google Scholar]
  182. Triventi M, Panichella N, Ballarino G, Barone C, Bernardi F. 2016. Education as a positional good: implications for social inequalities in educational attainment in Italy. Res. Soc. Stratif. Mobil. 43:39–52 [Google Scholar]
  183. US Census Bur. 2015. CPS Historical Time Series Tables Washington, DC: US Census Bur.
  184. US Dep. Educ. 2015. Table 323.10: Masters degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions, by field of study: selected years, 1970–1971 through 2014–2015. Digest of Education Statistics Washington, DC: Natl. Cent. Educ. Stat. [Google Scholar]
  185. Valletta R. 2015. Higher education, wages, and polarization. Fed. Reserve Bank San Francisco Econ. Lett 2015:2 [Google Scholar]
  186. Waldinger F. 2010. Quality matters: the expulsion of professors and the consequences for PhD student outcomes in Nazi Germany. J. Political Econ. 118:787–831 [Google Scholar]
  187. Webber DA. 2016. Are college costs worth it? How ability, major, and debt affect the returns to schooling. Econ. Educ. Rev. 53:296–310 [Google Scholar]
  188. Weeden K. 2002. Why do some occupations pay more than others? Social closure and earnings inequality in the United States. Am. J. Sociol. 108:55–101 [Google Scholar]
  189. Weisbrod BA. 1962. Education and investment in human capital. J. Political Econ. 5:106–23 [Google Scholar]
  190. Xie Y, Achen A. 2009. Science on the Decline? Educational Outcomes of Three Cohorts of Young Americans Ann Arbor: Univ. Mich. Popul. Stud. Cent.
  191. Xie Y, Fang M, Shauman K. 2015. STEM education. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 41:331–57 [Google Scholar]
  192. Xie Y, Killewald A. 2012. Is American Science on the Decline? Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  193. Xie Y, Shauman KA. 2003. Women in Science: Career Processes and Outcomes Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  194. Young IP. 2005. Predictive validity of applicants’ reference information for admission to a doctoral program in educational leadership. Educ. Res. Q. 29:16–25 [Google Scholar]
  195. Zhang L. 2005. Advance to graduate education: the effect of college quality and undergraduate majors. Rev. High. Educ. 28:313–38 [Google Scholar]
  196. Zhou X. 1993. Occupational power, state capacities and the diffusion of licensing in the American states. Am. Sociol. Rev. 58:563–52 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-081715-074324
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-081715-074324
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error