When it comes to getting into elite colleges and universities, clearly academics is the most important factor. But what kinds of activities outside the classroom also help? A new study by a group of sociologists concludes that apparently, parents visiting art museums is the most important factor in helping their kids get into elite schools:

The only out-of-school activity that increased the likelihood of a student ending up enrolled at an elite college was parental visits to art museums. Art classes and visits to public libraries (by parents or children) had no correlation to students matriculating either to colleges generally or to elite institutions. . . .

Two types of [in-school] participation made it more likely students would end up at elite colleges: yearbook or school newspapers and “hobby clubs.” Numerous activities had no apparent impact on whether or not students will end up in college -- elite or otherwise. School plays, interscholastic individual sports, intramurals, cheerleading, academic honor societies, public service clubs -- no impact is clear from any of them.

The article relates these findings to the concept of “cultural capital” -- the idea that cultural knowledge possessed by the middle and upper classes of society can be valuable assets. In this case, there’s nothing immediately magical about parents visiting art museums of course, but the point is that the parents then talk about these experiences with their children and impart onto them the value of such experiences.

On the one hand, it is interesting to see what “extracurricular” activities are apparently more important than others in influencing the chances of getting into an elite college. But on the other hand, these results unfortunately highlight the growing gap between the rich and the poor in American society.

That is, not all parents have the time and resources necessary to visit art museums. In other words, this form of cultural capital is realistically only accessible to some, not to all. And now that we see that it’s one of the most important factors in helping get their kids into elite schools, it just illustrates how the wealth gap in America continues to get wider and wider.