Abstract
The paper examines whether college application behavior assists members of privileged social groups to preserve their advantages in diversified higher education systems. The study is based on a survey conducted in Israel in 1999 on a sample of 4,061 freshmen in the research universities and the academic colleges, which are often perceived as the second tier of higher education. The findings show that strategic application behavior helps less able children of academic parents to achieve the summit of higher education: studying lucrative fields of study at the research universities. Mizrachim, the disadvantaged Jewish ethnic group, are strategic when applying for lucrative fields of study, but it does not affect their actual enrollment. Strategic application behavior helps Arabs, the most disadvantaged group in Israel, increase their odds of achieving the “worst” option, studying non-lucrative fields in colleges. Talented women successfully practice strategic behavior when applying for lucrative fields of study. The effects of strategic application behavior are, thus, mixed. It helps in preserving socio-economic and ethnic inequalities, but also helps in reducing gender inequality among talented students.
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Notes
Seven hundred and twenty-three students made two applications, 410 made three applications, 207 made four applications, and 85 made five or more applications.
The decision to categorize fields of study according to their expected economic returns is based on the centrality of that factor in shaping the prestige of fields of study in Israel. Research in the U.S. and Europe shows that high-SES students tend to prefer fields that are characterized by cultural capital over fields that promise high economic returns (see, for example, Goyette & Mullen, 2006, for the U.S.; Van de Werfhorst, De Graaf, & Kraaykamp 2001, for Holland). The findings on Israel are completely different showing that high-SES students prefer the lucrative professions over all other fields of study (e.g., Ayalon & Yogev, 2005).
An additional (unreported) analysis shows that this pattern is related to the tendency of women to apply to teachers training colleges. In Israel, as in many other countries, the teaching profession is both “feminine” and non-prestigious (Ayalon & Yogev, 2006). Teachers training colleges usually absorb less talented members of underprivileged social groups (Ayalon & Yogev, 2005). The findings show that strategic talented women, more than strategic talented men, apply to these colleges, using them, probably, as a “safety net.”
According to Goyette and Mullen (2006) institutional choice in the U.S. is related, to some degree, to major choice because institutions differ in their curricula offerings. Still, this is different from the direct choice of field of study prevalent in Israel.
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Acknowledgements
I thank Limor Gerbat, Moshe Lavi, and Timna Ziv for their research assistance, and the anonymous reviewers of Higher Education for their helpful comments.
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The paper was presented at the meeting of the Research Committee on Social Stratification and Mobility of the International Sociological Association held at Los Angeles, August 2005. The paper is based on a study conducted by the author and Abraham Yogev for the Israeli Ministry of Education.
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Ayalon, H. College application behavior: who is strategic? Does it help?. High Educ 54, 885–905 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-006-9031-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-006-9031-7