Higher education choice-making in the United States: freedom, inequality, legitimation

Abstract

The author shows that the provision of many choices in higher education, widely seen as desirable and fair, reproduces and legitimates social inequality when those choices are not accompanied by enough information. The paper examines the process of making higher education choices in the United States – whether to enter higher education, attend a particular college, or follow a particular route through college. It draws on research findings in the sociology of education, behavioural economics, and cognitive and social psychology.