The education of elites in the United States

This paper outlines the development of American scholarship on elite education. It reviews how students are accepted, their experiences within elite schools, and the consequences of elite education. It argues that elite schools are not elite because of their properties or competitiveness, nor because of who attends these schools. Instead, these institutions exist within a web of relations, contingent on the national and global institutional and cultural arrangements within which they are embedded. As the constitution of elites changes, so too does the definition of an elite school. This paper uses elite schools to reflect upon the character of the American elite.