Ivy Halls and Ivy Walls: The Continuing Legacy of the Ivy League

Abstract

This article analyses the changes in access to U.S. Ivy League universities over the last forty years in terms of gender, racial and ethnic diversity, to argue that despite greater access for women and racialized populations, these elite institutions still largely reproduce social class, with only a small percentage of their students drawn from the lower middle and working classes. The continuing lure of the Ivy League is examined, including specifically the lure for students in South Korea, and the article concludes with a discussion of which aspects of elite education should be widely available and might be transferable to other domains like public education.