to many students' knowing that college is “expensive” but having only passing familiarity with family finances.

. Lately, though, it appears that freshmen are moving left again, perhaps returning to a dichotomy similar to that of the 1960s and ’70s.

Other reasons include decreasing support for black students in high schools — many of which have become increasingly resegregated

So an extra dollar of income does have a greater effect on a poor child’s odds of attending college than on a rich child’s odds.

encourages someone to clarify or elaborate on a comment.

As May neared its end, some students still didn’t know what it would all cost, and some who did were disappointed.

After one college puts a golden ticket in your hand, was it foolish to think about going anywhere else?

Still, acceptances don’t guarantee access to higher education.

That was more helpful than all the times other people had said, "Oh, you’ll get to A&M!"

College counseling, Ms. Morgan had learned, required constant attention to small details, hour-to-hour resourcefulness.

Some Texas colleges didn’t hold state grants for applicants flagged for verification, which meant that money ran out while some eligible students were scrambling to finish the process.

It’s not just that the process of getting into college grows more stressful—and, consequently, more expensive—with every passing year.

only the wealthiest colleges can admit a lot of students whose parents can’t afford tuition.

even colleges that used to be known as commuter schools require first- and often second-year students to live in the dorms, even if their families live in the same city.

he race to be not only better-educated than your peers but also better at being a good person in the world

I would have to explain the concept of legacy admissions: the positively pre-modern concept that the right to an élite education is heritable

I generally like this idea: coverage of many issues could benefit from a naïve but informed view.

The state of Florida bars the use of race in admissions.

Right now, test takers don’t get to see that score.

The College Board uses all that data — drawn from the U.S. Census, public records, and other sources — to calculate a student’s “Overall Disadvantage Level,” on a scale of one to 100.

: Persuading their presidents and boards to support policies and practices that might increase socioeconomic diversity

According to a recent report from the nonprofit EdBuild, predominantly white school districts as a group receive $23 billion more than districts that serve mostly students of color, though both have the same number of students.

The majority of the schools targeted in this scheme are selective: The University of Texas at Austin takes four in 10 applicants, and Yale just 7 percent.

If you have more specific dreams, the Ivy League holds a near monopoly over the Supreme Court.

Rather than being an inevitable product of the forces of economic history, the professional elite was created, in large part through the efforts of Chauncey, Conant, and their colleagues.

He told Chauncey that he was making provisional plans to eliminate the deferment for fathers, which had been sacrosanct even during the Second World War, in order to make more room on the deferment lists for the intellectually gifted.

in the characteristic hope that science could correct human frailty.

in those days of minimally selective admissions, scored at or above the cutting score of 70 and so were deferred from the draft

The test itself was to be based on the SAT, but the Selective Service wanted it to be scored -- or, in testing language, "scaled" -- in such a way that the results could be compared with those of the Army General Classification Test given to inductees, a more nakedly IQ-like test.

G is supposed to be immutable, but SAT scores vary demonstrably over time according to the degree of specific preparation for the test.

It says that what CCJEF is asking is essentially $2 billion more in taxpayer funding to make schools equitable—a sum that would be difficult to raise in a cash-strapped state.

This is mainly because school funding is so local. The federal government chips in about 8 to 9 percent of school budgets nationally, but much of this is through programs such as Head Start and free and reduced lunch programs.