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People from elite backgrounds increasingly dominate academia, data shows

washingtonpost.com

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Re: People from elite backgrounds increasingly dominate academia, data shows

#171

Post by christophilus »

cm2187 wrote: post #32

> In 1970, just 1 in 5 U.S.-born PhD graduates in economics had a parent with a graduate degree. Now? Two-thirds of them do, according to a new analysis from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The trends are similar for other fields (and for foreign-born students), but economics is off the charts. > This partly reflects population trends: Over that same period, the share of parents with graduate degr…

Hasn’t the number of college degrees basically ballooned since the 70s?

Isn’t this like saying, “The number of professors whose parents have a car is up 3x since the 1930s?”

Re: People from elite backgrounds increasingly dominate academia, data shows

#172

Post by nabla9 »

US centered studies like this are so myopic that they are useless taken individually. https://www.piie.com/sites/default/files/documents/wp22-4.pd...

When Europeans make these studies–especially from smaller countries–they make cross country comparisons as a rule. These comparisons makes it possible to separate national policy from other effects.

Almost everything is multicausal in social sciences, separating the possible effect of different factors makes studies worthwhile.

Re: People from elite backgrounds increasingly dominate academia, data shows

#173

Post by V-2 »

chrchang523 wrote: post #169
robocat wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If 4% of parents have degrees, something like 7% of the next generation has at least one parent with a degree. Are you presuming marriage and degree-holding are independent variables? Although I presume there are fewer female degree holders, so perhaps it makes little difference.

“Something like 7%” is noticeably less than twice 4%, so no, I didn’t make that assumption. (I also explicitly stated that this was a back-of-the-napkin-quality analysis.)

It is noticeably closer to 8% than to 4% though. 7% would imply graduates exhibit a rather strong preference for marrying non-graduates over other graduates, which I find hard to believe.

Re: People from elite backgrounds increasingly dominate academia, data shows

#174

Post by meetingthrower »

lordnacho wrote: post #149
meetingthrower wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm. Just went to open days at Oxford and Cambridge with my son. We are Americans. Both my wife and I are double ivy grads. Totally different than the US and much more meritocratic. Steps are: 1. Be qualified to apply. In UK this means at least AAA if not more. Varies by course. US equivalent is have at least three 5s on AP and above 1450 on SAT. This is roughly equivalent to top 10% of uk graduates. 2. Take…

> But the overall impression I got was that for a well prepared and smart kid, it is much more straightforward than the so called elite US schools. Yes, plus you can skip applying to all the US schools if you get accepted, because you get the acceptance letter in December. I went to a high school that sent kids to both US and UK universities, and the US ones are incredibly onerous, not to mention expensive to even ap…

Damn I wish that were still true. They say they issue decisions in January now, which is after application deadlines for everyone else (Jan 1.)

Re: People from elite backgrounds increasingly dominate academia, data shows

#175

Post by chrchang523 »

V-2 wrote: post #173
chrchang523 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Something like 7%” is noticeably less than twice 4%, so no, I didn’t make that assumption. (I also explicitly stated that this was a back-of-the-napkin-quality analysis.)

It is noticeably closer to 8% than to 4% though. 7% would imply graduates exhibit a rather strong preference for marrying non-graduates over other graduates, which I find hard to believe.

At a time when only 4% of the population had graduate degrees, if 25% of married grad-degree-holders were married to another grad-degree-holder, that would constitute a large preference in favor of other graduates.

Re: People from elite backgrounds increasingly dominate academia, data shows

#176

Post by V-2 »

lutorm wrote: post #72
cm2187 wrote: post #32

> In 1970, just 1 in 5 U.S.-born PhD graduates in economics had a parent with a graduate degree. Now? Two-thirds of them do, according to a new analysis from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The trends are similar for other fields (and for foreign-born students), but economics is off the charts. > This partly reflects population trends: Over that same period, the share of parents with graduate degr…

It doesn't scale like that, though. If the % of people with college degrees had increased by 6x, to 24%, would you expect 6/5 of students to have parents with a college degree?

It's an oversimplification of course, but let's try another oversimplification just for argument's sake and to highlight the mechanism.

Let's say you are born without parents, and your parents get picked at random once you enter university (a completely fair system in that there is no bias involved).

If 4% of all "available" parents have a degree, your chance that you'll get at least one of those "assigned" to you is 7.84% (1 - ((1 - 0.04)^2)).

If 14% of all parents have one, this probability rises to 26.04% (1 - ((1 - 0.14)^2)).

Re: People from elite backgrounds increasingly dominate academia, data shows

#177

Post by V-2 »

wyre wrote: post #70
cm2187 wrote: post #32

> In 1970, just 1 in 5 U.S.-born PhD graduates in economics had a parent with a graduate degree. Now? Two-thirds of them do, according to a new analysis from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The trends are similar for other fields (and for foreign-born students), but economics is off the charts. > This partly reflects population trends: Over that same period, the share of parents with graduate degr…

This article’s point is that economist graduates now are more likely to have come from a parent who is also an economics grad than compared to other points in time and against other graduate programs.

"Academia in general — and economics in particular", claims the article.

Re: People from elite backgrounds increasingly dominate academia, data shows

#178

Post by avgcorrection »

kmeisthax wrote: post #58
kepler1 wrote: post #43

Let's play it forward where in some alternate reality we were able to reset the current "inequity" and give lots more people from non-elite backgrounds a good shot at proving their capabilities. Or even have that as an ongoing policy in a very fair way. ("Fair" being the problematic word which will constantly be debated.) Do you imagine that a new elite of some new type of class would not emerge? Would that new elite…

Since elite classes are probably inevitable without significantly reengineering the human condition, we at least want elite social structures that... 1. Do not stifle the well-being of lower classes 2. Allow upwards mobility into the elite class from lower classes Today's elite caste fails both criteria: the current elites have architected the US, if not the world, to the detriment of the working class. Upwards mobil…

A dominating class that

> 1. Do not stifle the well-being of lower classes

> 2. Allow upwards mobility into the elite class from lower classes

is not possible without significantly reingeneering the human condition.

Re: People from elite backgrounds increasingly dominate academia, data shows

#180

Post by junofan »

gnicholas wrote: post #77
cm2187 wrote: post #32

> In 1970, just 1 in 5 U.S.-born PhD graduates in economics had a parent with a graduate degree. Now? Two-thirds of them do, according to a new analysis from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The trends are similar for other fields (and for foreign-born students), but economics is off the charts. > This partly reflects population trends: Over that same period, the share of parents with graduate degr…

I think your analysis mixes up college degrees and graduate degrees. 'College degree' refers to a 4-year BA/BS, whereas 'graduate degree' typically refers to a PhD, Master's degree, or professional degree (JD/MD/MBA).

Yeah GP seems to be missing something. PhD programs at top schools are somewhat hereditary at this point. It’s so competitive and there’s too much stuff to just know how to do; spending time with a family member who’s done it before is a huge leg up vs. figuring it out on your own.
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