High School Context and College Selectivity: Institutional Constraints in Educational Stratification

Does where one goes to college depend on the kind of high school attended? And what are the consequences of attending a more or less academically selective college or university? These questions are evaluated separately for college men and women using longitudinal data from a national sample of youth who were high school sophomores in 1955, and controlling for individual family background, ability, and school curriculum. For males, but not females, the social status composition of high school was found to enhance one's prospects for attending a selective institution of higher education. College selectivity, in turn, had total salutary effects on educational attainment, despite its depressant effect on undergraduate grade performance and academic self-concept.