The common view of colleges and universities in the United States is

The common view of colleges and universities in the United States is that they are purveyors of opportunity. They stand as symbols of America's meritocracy; people perceive that, regardless of social or economic background, a person can go to college and make a good life for himself or herself. Because of this perceived ability to offer success indiscriminately, colleges have been seen as the main system of social mobility in the United States.

Colleges and universities did live up to their image as facilitators of social mobility in the United States from 1945-1975. Congress passed the GI Bill after World War II in order to allow former military men to pay for college. The number of students enrolled in college immediately quadrupled after the war as compared to pre-war levels. Eventually the opportunity to attend college, which was initially only open to white men, also opened to women and minority groups. In addition, during this 30 year period, the white-collar workforce in the United States increased by a factor of 12, creating plenty of middle class job opportunities for the new college graduates, including those from working class backgrounds.

However, since 1975, in the absence of a rapidly increasing white-collar workforce, colleges and universities have not been able to serve as the facilitators of social mobility as they did in the post-war period. In more recent years, the growth in white-collar jobs has not outstripped the growth in population. This fosters an environment where children from the middle and upper classes are competing with children from working class backgrounds for white-collar jobs. Upper and middle class children want to stay in their economic class by obtaining these jobs, while working class children are trying to break into the middle class by getting the same jobs. Since middle and upper class parents have more resources to invest in their children, these parents are usually better able to prepare their children to compete for spots in colleges that will qualify the children for white-collar jobs. This new reality is shown by the makeup of the nation's top colleges. Twenty two percent of students at the Ivy League schools Harvard, Yale, and Princeton come from just 0.3 percent of high schools. Further, in the top 150 colleges in the country, only 3 percent of students come from the bottom quartile of economic status and only 10 percent come from the bottom half.

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A. attack colleges and universities as the pawns of a powerful elite portion of society
B. chronicle the history of social mobility in the United States
C. show that a changing jobs environment has decreased the ability of colleges to cause upward social mobility
D. illustrate the need to create more white-collar jobs in the United States
E. discuss the trends in college admissions and how admissions officials have reacted to a more competitive group of applicants


2. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument made by the author in the final paragraph of the passage?

A. Other Ivy League colleges such as Brown or Dartmouth also take a significant number of students from only a few prestigious high schools.
B. Significant numbers of people from lower economic status are studying at colleges outside the top 150 schools and finding white collar jobs as a result.
C. Middle and upper-middle class parents are more likely to move in order to get their children into a better school district than are working class parents.
D. Even after more women and minorities began attending college in the 1960s and 70s, the predominant group in college was white males.
E. Many prestigious high schools advertise themselves as 'feeder-schools', meaning that they have a high rate of graduates attend Ivy League and other top colleges and universities.


3. From the passage, which of the following can be inferred about children from families in the top half of economic status?

A. Their parents are willing to spend whatever it takes to get them into top colleges.
B. They are 12 times more likely to get a white collar job than their lower economic status counterparts.
C. They take up 90 percent of the spots in the top 150 colleges in the United States.
D. Their parents are willing to move in order to make sure they end up in a good school district.
E. They are more likely to attend a boarding school that often sends graduates to Ivy League colleges and universities.


4. The author would most likely agree with which of the following statements?

A. Colleges and universities in the United States have a moral requirement to give all people a fair chance at admission.
B. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale need to change their admissions policies so as to not be so reliant on a small number of top rated high schools.
C. In the 30 years between 1975 and 2005 the number of white- collar jobs did not increase in the United States as quickly as it did in the 30 years prior to 1975.
D. Congress needs to pass another piece of legislation in order to have more people be able to pay for college.
E. Members of the middle and upper classes that have children should not place such a large emphasis on getting their children into highly regarded colleges and universities.