The American Dream as both idea and ideal, for all its complications, has had an undeniably powerful role in shaping values and aspirations in the U.S. and far beyond its borders. We spoke with faculty and students in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis who represent a wealth of knowledge and perspectives that help us think about American society’s past, present and continuing potential. 

For the past five years, economist Santiago Pérez has studied the socioeconomic makeup of students at elite institutions. A new working paper shows that neither free tuition nor the introduction of standardized testing had any impact on the backgrounds of students attending elite institutions for the last hundred years.