The Fantasy (and Nightmare) of Total Social Mobility [Although written to follow Part II, this part could be read on its own] Social mobility occurs when a person moves into a different social position in his or her maturity, relative to the social position they held at birth, which is…
Culture and Success on Tests and in School [Please read Part I of this post first, and note asterisked aside about the Bell Curve book, below, lest you scorn or doubt my moral fiber.] In Part I, the roles of nature and nurture were parsed. Although the children of professors…
Socio-Economic Status, Standardized Test Scores & College Admissions Many studies find a strong correlation between parents’ income and education level, and the child’s performance on standardized tests such as the SAT. Because of the role played by standardized tests in college admissions, especially for top tier schools, bias in test…
It makes a nice headline: “Cost of college out of control!” But that headline misleads. You don’t often see this alternative headline: “Family goes into debt, puts child up in Country Club for four years.” But that headline is neither more nor less misleading. Fact: at the University of California,…
—without exacerbating income inequality. [see this post for context] Low capital gains tax rates might be a good thing for promoting investment and economic growth. But as currently structured, the break on capital gains enormously benefits millionaires and billionaires, without bringing much benefit to the middle class. The goal should be…
Most investors in 2016 know that long term capital gains and dividends receive a tax break. Less well known is the fitful and turgid history of the exact discount applied to capital gains taxes. For instance President Reagan, in the great tax simplification of 1986, abolished the break, treating long…
Your marginal rate is the tax you pay on the next dollar of income, expressed as a percentage. This rate may be your single most powerful financial planning tool. It tells you how much of your next pay raise can be spent, versus how much will go to the government.…
[Part I defines OASWAP and quantifies the displacement. Part II focuses on displacement into California. Here in this final Part, I consider the consequences] Consequences of Displacement, California Edition Among applicants, a virtuous circle, with regard to current perceptions of Berkeley and UCLA as elite schools. It will become harder…
[In Part I, I define OASWAP and quantify the number of displaced students] Probing the Displacement We’re faced with a change at the margin: there was never room for all the 200,000 OASWAP students to attend elite colleges. In any case, plenty of the 200,000 students above the 93rd percentile are…
Elite colleges and universities have made diversity a priority. A Pomona or Oberlin will trumpet, “Domestic students of color make up the majority of the admitted class at 52.3 percent.” The Ivy League is not far behind. Brown University proclaims: “Forty-seven percent of the members of this year’s admitted class…