ICSA Online Webinar:  College Admissions as Cultural Matching

Topic: College Admissions as Cultural Matching: An Ethnographic Study of Gatekeeping at a Top University

Abstract: Top universities often rely on cultural matching, not just merit, in admissions. Data for this study come from participant observation and interviews with admissions officers at a top-ranked university in East Asia over three application cycles. Findings show cultural cues shape perceptions of fit, challenging fairness and reinforcing inequality.

Speaker: YI-LIN CHIANG, Assistant Professor of Sociology, NYU Shanghai

Moderator: JIA MIAO, Assistant Professor of Sociology, NYU Shanghai

Time: Oct 31, 2025, 09:00 AM Hong Kong SAR

Registration link: https://hku.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CV7wqnloSHyHE_953n4xsA

Summary

How do top universities select students? Although college admissions are often described as a merit-based process guided by standardized criteria and institutional priorities, some evidence suggest that decisions are also shaped by the cultural preferences of those who make them. This implies that admissions officers, the gatekeepers who control entry into higher education, play an active role in defining what constitutes fit. Data for this study come from participant observation and interviews with admissions officers at a top-ranked university in East Asia over three application cycles. I find that cultural matching, or the alignment between applicants’ and gatekeepers’ cultural signals, shapes admissions outcomes. Preliminary findings suggest that applicants’ cultural cues can strongly influence officers’ perceptions and, in turn, determine their chances of admission. These observations show that shared cultural understandings, rather than standardized measures of merit, often guide decision-making as early as selection into college. By uncovering the subtle mechanisms through which culture shapes evaluation, this study highlights how admissions practices contributes to the reproduction of inequality and challenges taken-for-granted notions of fairness and neutrality in university admissions.

Bio

Yi-Lin Chiang is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at NYU Shanghai. Before joining NYU Shanghai, she was Associate Professor of Sociology at National Chengchi University. Chiang’s research focuses on educational stratification and intergenerational status transmission in greater China. Her ethnographic work examines the processes and outcomes of elite status transmission. In other lines of research, she uses Taiwanese panel data to explore how schools and families contribute to educational inequality. Her book, Study Gods (Princeton University Press), received the 2023 Pierre Bourdieu Award for the Best Book in Sociology of Education from the Sociology of Education section of the American Sociological Association.