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It compares university allocation to intra-school tracking and argues that the concentration likely rose markedly from the 1970s to the 1980s, building on earlier post–World War II trends. The competitive recruitment process is framed as a “tournament” with dynamic positive feedback. It outlines background, distribution statistics, environmental shifts, and evidence on consequences for employer recruiting.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-growing-concentration-of-top-students-at-elite-schools-chapter-4/266652/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-growing-concentration-of-top-students-at-elite-schools-chapter-4/266652.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Aurora","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-17","2026-09-14",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why do top students increasingly concentrate in elite schools?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The chapter argues that interuniversity competition is uneven and that success breeds success, leading to high concentration among a small elite group.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What evidence does the chapter use to discuss changes over time?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It states that evidence suggests a substantial increase in concentration from the 1970s to the 1980s and that the process may continue from the immediate post–World War II period.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does the chapter explain the mechanism driving concentration?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It frames elite recruitment as a tournament in which only a few winners emerge and relative standing—more than absolute quality—determines outcomes, supported by a positive feedback dynamic.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},266652,1789410276,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},4810365810221,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","This PDF is a selection from an out-of-print volume from the National Bureauof Economic Research  \nVolume Title:Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education  \nVolume Author/Editor:Charles T.Clotfelter and Michael Rothschild,editors  \nVolume Publisher:University of Chicago Press  \nVolume ISBN:0-226-11054-0  \nVolume URL:http://www.nber.org/books/clot93-1  \nConference Date:May 17-19,1991  \nPublication Date:January 1993  \nChapter Title:The Growing Concentration of Top Students at Elite Schools  \nChapter Author:Philip J.Cook,Robert H.Frank  \nChapter URL:http://www.nber.org/chapters/c6099  \nChapter pages in book:(p.121-144)  \nThe Growing Concentration ofTop Students at Elite Schools  \n4  \nPhilip J.Cook and Robert H.Frank  \nColleges and universities compete to matriculate the most able students.Butwhile there are literally hundreds of schools pursuing each year's crop of tophigh school seniors,the competition is by no means even.Top students areattracted to the schools with the best reputations,the most prestige,and thegreatest past success in matriculating good students.Schools further down inthe academic hierarchy continue to attract a limited number of top studentsbecause of compensating advantages such as location,low tuition,or familytradition.But a remarkably high and growing proportion of top students endup in a smallnumber of elite schools.  \nQualitatively,the current interuniversity allocation of students resemblesthe intraschool tracking systems employed within many of the nation's ele-mentary schools.The social desirability of sorting by ability has been hotlydebated in the elementary school case but has received much less serious at-tention in the university context.Indeed,closer examination of the trackingissue at the university level seems especially timely in light of the evidencewe present here.This evidence suggests that the concentration of top studentsin elite schools may have increased substantially from the 1970s to the 1980s.  \nPhilipJ.Cook is professor of economics and public poicy at Duke University,where he holdsa joint appointment in the department of economics and the Sanford Institute of Public Policy.Robert H.Frank is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics,Ethics,and Public Policy atCornellUniversity,where he holds a joint appointment in the department of economics and theJohnson Graduate School of Management.  \nThe authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of those who made a special effort to provideunpublished data for this project,including Gary Barnes,Richard Herrnstein,Judy KowarskyOscar Larson,Carol Luszcz,Charles Murray,Susan Murphy,and Judy Siders.Alan Durell,GinaTriplett,and Jose Chavez supplied able research assistance.The authors also thank Tom Devlinand Kim Alexander of the Cornell Career Services Office for help with their survey of Cornellrecruiters.Charles Clotfelter provided many useful suggestions along the way.Henry Aaron,James Hamilton,Michael Rothschild,Larry Litten,Paula Berger,and the conference participantsprovided helpful comments on the original draft.  \nAnd there is other evidence suggesting that this recent increase is a continua-  \ntion of a process that began in the immediate post-World War II period.  \nIn addition to whatever policy concerns are raised by these results,theymay also be of interest as an illustration of a competitive process known in theeconomics literature as a “tournament.”The interesting features of this pro-cess are that it yields only a few winners from among many contestants andthat the relative standing of the contestants,much more than their absolutequality,determines their prize.We suggest that the competition for top stu-dents can be viewed as a tournament,one characterized by a dynamic processwith positive feedback.In recruiting good students,success breeds success,and the result has been a high degree of concentration.Among the possibleexplanations for why concentration has grown during recent years,we willdiscuss more intense marketing b","cbCaiiuE14NBVXXg","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiiuE14NBVXXg","pdf",321726,25,"English","# Background\n## Prestige and elite rankings\n## Consequences of elite enrollment\n# Growing concentration of top students\n## Competitive allocation and tracking analogy\n## Tournament process and positive feedback\n## Evidence and implications for recruiting","[{\"question\":\"Why do top students increasingly concentrate in elite schools?\",\"answer\":\"The chapter argues that interuniversity competition is uneven and that success breeds success, leading to high concentration among a small elite group.\"},{\"question\":\"What evidence does the chapter use to discuss changes over time?\",\"answer\":\"It states that evidence suggests a substantial increase in concentration from the 1970s to the 1980s and that the process may continue from the immediate post–World War II period.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the chapter explain the mechanism driving concentration?\",\"answer\":\"It frames elite recruitment as a tournament in which only a few winners emerge and relative standing—more than absolute quality—determines outcomes, supported by a positive feedback dynamic.\"}]","The Growing Concentration of Top Students at Elite Schools - Chapter 4 | PDF",63]