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Affluent Students Dominate Top Colleges

From Georgia Tech to Michigan to Harvard, affluent students dominate top college enrollment. We’ll look at what that means for the country.

Graduates walk at Harvard's Commencement exercises. (linoleum jet/Flickr)

Graduates walk at Harvard's Commencement exercises. (linoleum jet/Flickr)

From the Ivy League to the great state colleges and universities across this country, going to a top school can be a very real advantage.

Look at our top execs. Google — Michigan. Wal-Mart — Georgia Tech. Exxon Mobil — Texas. Or our last four presidents, with Columbia, Yale, Georgetown, Yale — and Harvard, too.

But who gets into the top schools? Disproportionately, the affluent.

Despite years of effort now, the golden door is still opening most widely to “them that’s got.” That’s a problem for a “land of opportunity.”

This hour On Point: top colleges, affluent students.

– Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Anthony Marx, president of Amherst College.

Kevin Reilly, president of the University of Wisconsin system.

Jeff Strohl, economist and research director at  Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

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