Crafting a Class: College Admissions and Financial Aid, 1955-1994

Elizabeth A. Duffy; Idana Goldberg

Published by Princeton University Press 1997

Crafting a Class

College Admissions and Financial Aid, 1955-1994

Elizabeth A. Duffy and Idana Goldberg

Volume 77 in the series The William G. Bowen Series

In the series Princeton Legacy Library

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400864683

Overview
Contents

About this book

Admissions and financial aid policies at liberal arts colleges have changed dramatically since 1955. Through the 1950s, most colleges in the United States enrolled fewer than 1000 students, nearly all of whom were white. Few colleges were truly selective in their admissions; they accepted most students who applied. In the 1960s, as the children of the baby boom reached college age and both federal and institutional financial aid programs expanded, many more students began to apply to college. For the first time, liberal arts colleges were faced with an abundance of applicants, which raised new questions. What criteria would they use to select students? How would they award financial aid? The answers to these questions were shaped by financial and educational considerations as well as by the struggles for civil rights and gender equality that swept across the nation. The colleges' answers also proved crucial to their futures, as the years since the mid-1970s have shown. When the influx of baby boom students slowed, colleges began to recruit aggressively in order to maintain their class sizes. In the past decade, financial aid has become another tool that colleges use to compete for the best students.

By tracing the development of competitive admission and financial aid policies at a selected group of liberal arts colleges, Crafting a Class explores how institutional decisions reflect and respond to broad demographic, economic, political, and social forces. Elizabeth Duffy and Idana Goldberg closely studied sixteen liberal arts colleges in Massachusetts and Ohio. At each college, they not only collected empirical data on admissions, enrollment, and financial aid trends, but they also examined archival materials and interviewed current and former administrators. Duffy and Goldberg have produced an authoritative and highly readable account of some of the most important changes that have taken place in American higher education during the tumultuous decades since the mid-1950s. Crafting a Class will interest all readers who are concerned with the past and future directions of higher education in the United States.

Originally published in 1997.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Reviews

"An excellent, interesting, well-written book.... It is a significant contribution to the history of higher education, and in particular, to the history of liberal arts colleges."—David W. Breneman, University of Virginia

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Figures and Tables Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Foreword William G. Bowen and Harold T. Shapiro Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xxiii
PART I. Enrollment, Admissions, and Quality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART II. Responses to Social Forces Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
PART III. The Evolution of Financial Aid Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	228
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Appendix A: Survey Forms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
Appendix B: Interviews Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	286

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Edition: Course Book
Audience: Professional and scholarly;College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 322
Illustrations
- Other: 35 line illus. 4 tables

eBook

Published: July 14, 2014
ISBN: 9781400864683