Students across the country are facing a mounting challenge upon graduation. This challenge is not one that is easily surmounted or circumvented. The challenge is also not limited in scope to one social class or geographical region. The challenge facing more and more students every year is student loans. The loans themselves are not the issue, but rather the excessive amount of debt that tends to follow. A recent analysis, done by the Wall Street Journal, has shown that over half of students across 347 different universities have defaulted on their student loans(Fuller & Belkin). The issues arise when the tactics that universities use to enroll students are examined in line with this recent study. Three different sociological concepts have a direct and correlated effect on students in regard to the default rate of student loans. These concepts include: social location, institutional discrimination, and capital conversion. Social location refers to the location in society of that individual.
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It is not simply just the geographical location, but all the aspects of culture and society that make up that individual (Wright). The social location of a person is dependent on both the social structure and the social institutions present in their life (Wright). An example of social location can be viewed if an imaginary college student is created. For instance, imagine a freshman male student who is from Chicago and was born into a middle class society. He is a Christian and ranks himself as a moderate when expressing his views on American politics. In this example all the descriptive features used to explain this fictional character are a part of his social location. The social location is unique to an individual, meaning everyone varies slightly in some way (Wright). The concept of institutional discrimination can take two different forms, intentional and unintentional. The discrimination comes when one group bases treatment or preference based on an aspect of a person(Wright). A female who is denied a job is a victim of institutional discrimination. Denial in this manner can be either purposeful on the part of the hiring party, or can occur without conscious thought. The consequence from this is the idea of self-fulfilling prophecies. A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when a circle of logic begins, such as girls being bad at math. When parents tell their daughters that they are naturally bad at math, the girl will not try as hard and math grades will suffer. Suffering grades in math reinforce the parental notion that the daughter was bat at math, and the cycle continues (Wright). In everyday life currency changes hands all over the world. This currency is converted to different currency across country borders and given different value. In a similar manner, an individual can use different forms of currency to benefit themselves in life. This currency is not purely of economic or monetary value, but rather that of social and cultural currency in addition to economic (Wright). The conversions can be between these types and occur in many different ways. For example, imagine the college student from before. If in a certain situation he was lacking in some aspect of cultural currency, he could convert economic capital in order to compensate for the lack of cultural capital. This could be done though taking music lessons, for instance. The transaction of paying with money to learn a cultural skill is a prime example of capital conversion. Students in the U.S. …show more content…
are severely effected by the student loan default rates. Social location has a major impact on the way in which students attend and fund their higher education. Those individuals who are not economically able to fund their college education are either left out of higher education, or must resort to taking out student loans to cover the cost. By taking out student loans, individuals are entrapping themselves in a lifetime of debt to both private and government institutions. David Bergeron, a former education advisor to the White House Administration, said “ [i]t’s [higher education] supposed to lift people up, out of their circumstances and leave them better” (Fuller & Belkin). His point is that the default rate on student loans is pushing college graduates into poverty and reducing any opportunity to get back to a decent economic standing. A student’s sociological location plays a major role in how they get to attend college, if at all. Individuals
It is not simply just the geographical location, but all the aspects of culture and society that make up that individual (Wright). The social location of a person is dependent on both the social structure and the social institutions present in their life (Wright). An example of social location can be viewed if an imaginary college student is created. For instance, imagine a freshman male student who is from Chicago and was born into a middle class society. He is a Christian and ranks himself as a moderate when expressing his views on American politics. In this example all the descriptive features used to explain this fictional character are a part of his social location. The social location is unique to an individual, meaning everyone varies slightly in some way (Wright). The concept of institutional discrimination can take two different forms, intentional and unintentional. The discrimination comes when one group bases treatment or preference based on an aspect of a person(Wright). A female who is denied a job is a victim of institutional discrimination. Denial in this manner can be either purposeful on the part of the hiring party, or can occur without conscious thought. The consequence from this is the idea of self-fulfilling prophecies. A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when a circle of logic begins, such as girls being bad at math. When parents tell their daughters that they are naturally bad at math, the girl will not try as hard and math grades will suffer. Suffering grades in math reinforce the parental notion that the daughter was bat at math, and the cycle continues (Wright). In everyday life currency changes hands all over the world. This currency is converted to different currency across country borders and given different value. In a similar manner, an individual can use different forms of currency to benefit themselves in life. This currency is not purely of economic or monetary value, but rather that of social and cultural currency in addition to economic (Wright). The conversions can be between these types and occur in many different ways. For example, imagine the college student from before. If in a certain situation he was lacking in some aspect of cultural currency, he could convert economic capital in order to compensate for the lack of cultural capital. This could be done though taking music lessons, for instance. The transaction of paying with money to learn a cultural skill is a prime example of capital conversion. Students in the U.S. …show more content…
are severely effected by the student loan default rates. Social location has a major impact on the way in which students attend and fund their higher education. Those individuals who are not economically able to fund their college education are either left out of higher education, or must resort to taking out student loans to cover the cost. By taking out student loans, individuals are entrapping themselves in a lifetime of debt to both private and government institutions. David Bergeron, a former education advisor to the White House Administration, said “ [i]t’s [higher education] supposed to lift people up, out of their circumstances and leave them better” (Fuller & Belkin). His point is that the default rate on student loans is pushing college graduates into poverty and reducing any opportunity to get back to a decent economic standing. A student’s sociological location plays a major role in how they get to attend college, if at all. Individuals