a282  2053  09 Feb 90
AM-Elite Colleges,0523
Top Colleges Still Cater to an Elite, Study Says
By ALAN FLIPPEN
Associated Press Writer
    BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Students at the nation's top colleges now are
more likely to be from upper middle-class families than from old
money, according to a study released Friday.
    The new elite is defined more by intellectual achievement than
family tradition, but is an exclusive one nonetheless, two sociology
professors say in their study of the freshman class that enrolled in
1986.
    ''It's not the old gentry any more,'' said Professor Lionel S. Lewis
of the State University of New York at Buffalo. ''They've
incorporated the upper middle class and professional class.''
    Lewis and his co-author, Paul William Kingston of the University of
Virginia, compared freshmen entering all colleges and universities
that year to those who enrolled in the 76 most selective schools, as
defined by the American Council on Education. Those are schools where
the freshman class averaged at least 1,175 of a possible 1,600 points
on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
    ''That would be the Ivy League schools and the prestigious colleges
- Oberlin, Swarthmore, Haverford, places like that,'' Lewis said.
    More than 60 percent of the freshmen at the selective schools came
from families with income of at least $50,000 a year, compared with
31 percent overall. Nearly 25 percent of the freshmen at selective
schools came from families with incomes of $100,000 or more, compared
with 7 percent overall.
    The freshmen admitted to those schools are unquestionably chosen for
their academic merit and extracurricular achievements, rather than
family wealth or connections, but merit is measured on a yardstick
that favors the affluent, Lewis and Kingston said in an article in
the journal Academe.
    ''Most students who are meritorious in the conventional sense come
from high-income families where they have enjoyed special
opportunities; children from lower-income families acquire relatively
fewer linguistic and cultural skills,'' the professors wrote.
    ''The 'all-around' person is an upper-class value, and the dominance
of this value in the admissions process has made it possible for
elite private institutions to tighten their academic requirements for
admission and still cater to the privileged.''
    Many of the top schools say their admissions policies are
''need-blind'' and promise to give all students as much financial aid
as they need, but Lewis said those policies aren't designed to
attract students from lower-income backgrounds.
    ''The first part of financial aid is always a student loan. Then
they give work-study. Then, after that, they might give some kind of
a grant,'' Lewis said in an interview. ''If you accept any form of
student aid, you're going to have to borrow, and some people choose
not to do that.''
    He said an increase in merit-based scholarships might be part of the
solution, but other issues would remain, such as the possibility that
poorer students might feel uncomfortable at those schools or that the
SAT and other admissions criteria discriminate against the poor and
minorities.
    ''I don't have a pat and easy answer,'' he said. ''The problem is
the problem of inequality in our society.''
    
 
AP-NY-02-09-90 2341EST
***************