The statistics are no surprise to me. I taught at UNC-Chapel Hill
and now am at Rice University, and I have a lot of friends at
UH-Housto a lower tier state university.
I think there are three main variables that contribute to higher
graduation rates at "elite" universities:
1. higher academic aptitude, I don't believe that SATs are magic,
but in general students with higher SATS are better able to handle
college courses and elite schools have higher average SATs
2. higher SES families, families that have more financial resources
are more likely to support students through crises of major/grad
school etc. More selective universities admit more students from
higher SES families.
3. financial support. Elite schools offer more financial support of
various kinds (loans, scholarships, work-study). At Rice many
students who enter with family support for them to be pre-med, change
their minds and since they have scholarships rather than being
dependent on family finances are able to switch rather than cave-in
or drop out. I suspect that at other universities those students
are forced to drop out. It would be very interesting, and a VERY
hard study to track where those students end up.
--
Richard E. Grandy
Professor
Philosophy & Cognitive Sciences
Rice University
Houston, TX USA