Quality of Higher Education and Sociopolitical Attitudes

Attitude differences by quality of higher education experience were investigated on six sociopolitical issues for a national sample of adult Americans. Persons from high-ranked colleges were found to be consistently more liberal than those from low- and unranked institutions, differences which were significant on all but one item when region of birth and age were held constant. Most variance in attitudes by education lies between the three major educational strata (grade school, high school, and college), rather than within the college-educated group. But rising levels of higher education and greater differences among younger than older persons suggest a continuing stratification of opinion within the college-educated population.