creating a class, mitchell stevens

(11-12): reproduction thesis vs. transformation thesis -- ends up somewhere in the middle

(13): the credential society ('educational' legitimation)

(14): machinery for the transmission of privilege, in short

(18): Bourdieu and 'social class' as marked out through aesthetics

(20): weakness of quantitative work thus far has been that they haven't delved into admissions process

(22): key page -- meritocracy? nope

1. admissions process/athletic competitions are primary mechanisms of status differentiation
2. elite colleges as 'sensual'/'emotional' organizations
3. the machinery is elemental to American class structure

(32): 'status' as main business of elite colleges [hmm...]

(50-51): massaging the Numbers-- had to look good

(94): Traveling/contact fostering class barriers as well (has to do with 'ease' for admissions officers--bang for buck)

(98-99): Athletics not simply an adjunct program - important prestige system for American higher education (status of the other schools it faces on the playing field) [affluence embodied in sports and 'beautiful physiques' vs. poverty embodied in ailments]

(131-132, 136): myth of natural talent -- 'upper-middle-class children receive the lion's share of athletic support in America' (citing Lareau). writing consciously about the 'vast majority,' here

(142-143): Race -- these institutions bear the imprint of history, but are also anxious to recruit diverse populations: not just b/c of ethical concerns, but also b/c of rankings/status worries

(157): a 'white culture'

(186): Decisions -- need to think about 'individualized consideration' (committee), without overemphasizing or understating it -- there are forms of class bias that inhere in these selective college admissions (evaluative storytelling)

(222-224): F-rounds

(226): (1) privilege in information delivery (which is how individualized consideration is discriminatory--infrastructure to get word across to counselors); (2) decisions made in an intramural context--those with privilege are more likely to have influential advocates

(229-230): in Yield season, the 'management' of emotions/desires to bring them is central [but arg admits that students opt for 'highly rated'--insistence on 'emotions' seems misplaced, despite attempts to justify it]

(245): c cultivation prep for college

(247): higher educational institutions as forging the morality of 'meritocracy' [few of us question this -- DISCUSS]

(247-248): sum--organizational machinery that reproduces the privileges familiar to u-m-class America; "the terms of college admission have become class-biased standards by which we measure the fruits of parenting and the preponderant means of laundering privilege in contemporary American society."

(251): acct of social context -- educational system came of age in 50s 60s as America's answer, almost. to unfairness (let business do its work -- but equality of opportunity + acendant middle-class)

(252): a modest welfare State -- but biggest higher education infrastructure in the world.

(254): education as path of access to the upper middle class

(255): in the context of neoliberal restructuring, selective Colleges as an insurance scheme for an anxious elite [this is wishy-washy -- a nice story, but makes no mention of the fact that these were not the people hit hard by the transition]

(258): 'total institutions' -- governing marriage, love, sex, etc., as well as labour markets

(260-261): 'back-to-basics' reforms [citing Arum] in schools, leaving students even less well-equipped

(263): a tiny fraction of those educated -- but 'our best and brightest' (profound cultural influence)

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PROPOSALS?