The United States and Norway represent two distinctively different attempts to equalize educational opportunity. Whereas the United States has focused on expansion and the proliferation of lower-tier open-access institutions, Norway has emphasized institutional streamlining and the equalization of living conditions. At the same time, the two countries have similar levels of educational attainment among young adults. Is one model more successful than the other in providing equality of educational opportunity among youth from different socioeconomic backgrounds? Using longitudinal data and multinomial regression analysis, the findings reveal that there are more similarities than differences in the relationship between family background and college degree attainment in the two countries. The relatively moderate differences between the two countries primarily emerge in the patterning of selection at different transition points rather than in the overall relationship between socioeconomic background and college degree attainment. (Contains 10 notes, 2 tables, and 3 figures.)