Changes in Access to Higher Education in the United States: 1980-1992

This article explores the factors that determine how high school graduates become linked to colleges at particular levels of selectivity. First, it assesses various theories of change in educational attainment by comparing patterns of access to institutions of higher education of varying selectivity in the United States between 1980 and 1992. Second, with regard to how students and colleges of varying selectivity are matched, it replicates the work of James C. Hearn on 1980 high school graduates (using High School and Beyond) and introduces some additional variables, drawn primarily from the work of Pierre Bourdieu, in an analysis of 1992 high school graduates (using the National Education Longitudinal Study)