The assumption behind the fierce competition for admission to elite colleges and universities is clear: The more elite the school one attends, the brighter one’s future. That assumption, however, may well be flawed. The research examined recently by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights provides strong reason to believe that attending the most competitive school is not always best—at least for students who aspire to a degree in science or engineering.1
Majoring in science or engineering can be difficult. As one Yale University student told the Wall Street Journal, the science course he took “scared the hell out of me.” “In other classes, if you do the work, you’ll get an A,” he complained. “In science, it just doesn’t work that way.”2
Well…yes, the feeling that one is flailing about in science and engineering courses can be
Get access to this article, plus the entire archive, by subscribing.