"Aries builds on her decades-long commitment to the undergraduate experience to further understand college students’ experiences with race and class diversity within elite institutions. Using a unique, longitudinal research design that draws on students’ rich accounts of their lives at Amherst College and in the years after graduation, Aries argues that elite institutions can serve as engines of social mobility and indeed have the obligation to do so. The Impact of College Diversity is a testament to the role that diversity and inclusion can play in deepening our understanding of self and other, promoting social mobility, and even enhancing productivity and innovation within society as a whole."- Jenny Stuber, Professor of Sociology at the University of North Florida, and author of Inside the College Gates: How Class and Culture Matter in Higher Education “The Impact of College Diversity provides in-depth insights into how college students’ experiences with social class and racial diversity shape their perspectives and lives well after graduation. Interviews with dozens of graduates who hold divergent identities also illustrate how college experiences and long-term outcomes sometimes vary based on these young adults’ race, their socioeconomic upbringing, their current socioeconomic status, and the intersections among these. This book will prove useful for readers who care about diversity and equity in higher education.”-Nicholas A. Bowman, Mary Louise Petersen Chair in Higher Education at the University of Iowa "[T]imely in its presentation of research on the importance of affirmative action.... Aries’ book is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in understanding the educational trajectories of students who must navigate class and/or race in universities and beyond."-Educational Review "How do students perceive the benefits and costs of upward mobility? What are the possibilities and limitations of learning from diverse peers? How does what students learn in college endure or fade over time? And what types of inequalities persist among college graduates? Elizabeth Aries’ new book, The Impact of College Diversity, presents a fascinating-and breathtakingly expansive-response to these questions.... What Aries must be commended for is the breadth of engagement with these interconnected questions, which The Impact of College Diversity addresses in a concise and accessible way."-Social Forces"Elizabeth Aries describes how 30-year-old Amherst College alumni reflect on experiencing diversity at an elite campus…. [T]he insights of the book are inherently longitudinal…. [R]eaders learn how participants navigate work settings in light of past experiences…. The evidence is not overwhelming, but exposure to diversity in college certainly mattered according to these participants…. While student affairs professionals and administrators should be interested in The Impact of College Diversity in general, there are numerous suggestions for improving campus climate here."-Contemporary Sociology