[3][4] Khan attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, graduating magna cum laude with distinction in math, science, music, and Latin in 1996.

He studied with Robert M. Hauser, Erik Olin Wright, and Myra Marx Ferree.

In 2010-11 he was a fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers in the New York Public Library.

[6] He is the director of the Russell Sage Foundation research network which studies the political influence of economic elites,[7] and is leading a research program that uses the archives of the New York Philharmonic to understand the long-term historical composition of classical music concert-goers.

[15][16][17] His book, Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School, was published in 2011 by Princeton University Press.