Cecil Bohanon and John Horowitz: No elite degree? High test scores matter more

A recently released study on admission practices at elite academic universities shows their highest admission rates are for students from wealthy families.

Using detailed data not previously available, the authors show that holding SAT/ACT entrance scores constant, admission rates for high school students from households in the bottom 40% of the income distribution is about 15%. Admission rates then steadily decline until the 95th percentile, where they hover at just above 10%. Admission rates then rise to 15% for students from households between the 95th and 99th income percentiles. Admission rates dramatically increase to over 25% for those in the 99.9th percentile.

The elite academic institutions in the study are the seven private East Coast Ivy League universities, plus MIT, Stanford, Duke and the University of Chicago. These schools account for less than 1% of American college students, but their graduates account for almost 12% of Fortune 500 CEOs, 26% of Wall Street Journal and New York Times staff, 42% of U.S. presidents since 1961, and nearly 72% of Supreme Court justices since 1967.

Nevertheless, this and other studies find that attending an elite school has little to no effect on future earnings, as higher test scores alone predict higher earnings regardless of where one attends college. In other words, students with higher test scores earn more regardless of whether they attended elite universities. Though these studies also found that attending an elite school did increase future earnings for students from less-educated families (in terms of their parents’ education) and Black and Hispanic students.

This study found that eliminating policies that benefit students from wealthy families, such as 1) more accessible admissions for children of alums, 2) non-academic rating weights and 3) preferences for athletes would increase enrollment in elite schools from the bottom 95% of the income distribution by only 144 students per academic year.

For most students, there is little difference in income from attending top state universities and private universities compared with elite schools. Brighter and more conscientious students do better in high school, score higher on entrance exams such as the SAT and ACT, earn more and are hired for higher-paying jobs regardless of whether they attend elite schools.

While access to power and privilege should not be based on accidents of birth or income, Bohanon and Horowitz view the debate about relative privilege among the highly privileged as a less crucial social issue, although interesting to consider.•

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Bohanon and Horowitz are professors of economics at Ball State University. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.