7.4d2 Closed Social Networks

Wealthy individuals maintain their social class positions at the meso-level through exclusive social networks. For example, members of the economic elite often attend exclusive institutions, such as boarding schools and Ivy League universities, even though they do not require a degree to secure a job that would enable them to keep their wealth. Instead, elite education credentials serve as symbolic capital, helping to legitimate their wealth (Beckert, 2022). Moreover, children from the top 1% of households (who earn at least $611,000 annually) are twice as likely to be admitted to a highly selective university, such as an Ivy League institution, as are other applicants with identical standardized test scores (Chetty et al., 2023). Consequently, there are fewer spots available for middle- and low-income students at elite institutions, limiting upward mobility.

Rivera (2016) studied how elite students get desirable jobs in elite investment, management, and law firms. She interviewed 120 people responsible for hiring undergraduates at elite firms and did participation observation at recruitment events. She argues that elite students are structurally advantaged at multiple points during the hiring process. Elite firms limit their recruitment for these positions to elite universities, and hiring committees use class-based criteria to evaluate candidates. For example, hiring committees viewed attendance at an Ivy League school because of individual merit without considering the class-based resources necessary for such an achievement. While there were exceptions, most new hires to these elite firms came from a high-status university, and most students from such institutions could secure employment at an elite firm.

Photo 7.13

Wealthy Families Maintain Their Class Status By Sending Their Children to Elite Colleges