I just read this very interesting article about college and why students attend. The author, April Yee, made a few key points about why young adults, attending higher education. In the article April interviews 34 students from a large urban public university. She studied students who came from many different ethical and racial backgrounds. They was also an even split between them as males and females.…
Shamus Khan’s Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School is a excellent example of the sociological imagination at work. The book examines the school from all angles, from different perspectives, and compares it to the school’s earlier years. Kahn often includes anecdotal stories of specific students in between his sociological analyses which help bring the situation to life and provide a more in depth look at the student’s lives. C. Wright Mills, the American sociologist who claimed that the sociological imagination was being lost in most research, would have found Kahn’s book to be a rich examination of the culture of St. Paul’s School. I.…
• According to Carolyn Birds, writer of College is a Waste of Time and Money, Bird’s presents the idea that adolescents that recently finished their high school education automatically go to college “because it has become the thing to do or because college is a pleasant place to be” (Lines 5-7). Too many, the previous statement that Bird presents can be seen as valid; socialization has become a key component as to why many individuals go to college directly after finishing high school. From movies to personal experiences, people see that from high school the norm is to attend college. That while in college you will find yourself and it will become the best four years of your life.…
In their book Paying for the party, Armstrong and Hamilton discusses how universities take class differences and class projects of distinct women to define what will be their college experience. In their book, Armstrong and Hamilton defines class projects as individual and class characteristics that defines a person’s agenda and orientation to school. Hence, people with similar class projects not only shared the same financial, cultural and social capital, but also the same expectations toward school. As a result, Armstrong and Hamilton claims that students with similar class projects end up becoming a collective constituency and a representative group for the university, whom in turn must take their interests to form a college pathway for…
Ross Douthat dives into the socioeconomic obstacles of college with a satirical analysis of what is truly asked of the modern day college student in College the Great Unequalizer. He uses the data pulled from “Paying for the Party” (“How College Maintains Inequality”) to illustrate that it is not enough to simply attend college anymore; you must attend and meet the brutal standards that come with it. Those who are born into a well off family are more equipped to come out on top than those that are born into a family with less means. Douthat labels these students as either the winners or the losers. The winners are, obviously, those who are financially advantaged.…
A Change in Perspectives To the everyday adult, college students are easy to come off as lazy, self-indulgent, disrespectful- what anyone would say of a young adult who lives for the party and gives less than their best efforts in school. On the contrary, to the everyday college student, this narrow-minded adult would be very wrong. It is not until Rebecca Nathans works in her book My Freshman Year that we have the adult challenging the prejudiced views non-students have on these young adults.…
The Great Divine is a newspaper article that focuses on inequality, the newspaper published an article called, “Stop holding us back” by Robert Balfanz. This article focuses on the fact that “one-third of the nation’s African-American and Latino young men will not graduate”. (Balfanz). The article reveals that back in 2014 the total of high school graduates was more than three million students. In the article Robert Balfanz conducted a study with one of his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University, and they found that “half of the African-American boys who veer of the paths to high school graduation do so in just 660 or more than 12,600 regular schools”.…
“Paying for the Party,” conveys the roles and choices made by college students, specifically female students from different classes at Midwest University (MU). The authors Armstrong and Hamilton observe how the decision made by these students may affect their social standings through out and after their college life. Based on a five-year long study the authors interviewed college women who were living in the “party dorm” at MU. They differentiated these women into three different classes, upper middle class, lower middle class, and working class. Then they split each class into four different categories: the first being “primed to party” which were wealthier students whom partying was important, the second were “cultivated for success” which were students who had certain academic goals to achieve and were financially supported by their parents, the third were “motivated for…
College is not the key to be someone in life. In the article “The Danger of Telling Poor Kids That College is the Key to Social Mobility” by Andrew Simmons, he gives his reaction to a college essay written by a senior in high school…
Many feel overwhelmed, confused, and as if they do not fit into colleges or universities of their choice. Many first generation students fear that they will never be good enough or that they will let their families down. Therefore, there is much weight on their shoulders which can lead to them dropping out and thus, drop retention rates. One of the many causes of so many young women and men being first generation students is that several come from disadvantaged backgrounds whether it is about the sex they are or their…
Studies have shown that just about 50% of first generation college students’ parents have had a high school education or received a lower education than that (Trombley). First generation college students have a harder time throughout their years in school compared to non-first generation college students as showed in a study. Michael Stebleton and Krista Soria conducted a study examining about 60,000 students from six different colleges to analyze the difference between first generation and non-first generation college students. They studied their academics along with their skills and feelings of coping with different situations. The study found that “first generation students weren’t as academically prepared as others” (Stebleton), meaning that compared to others in college they weren’t reaching the same grades.…
This alienation is further delineated when looking at the case of 1st generation college students finding a sense of belonging in an environment that is unfamiliar and strange. Most public high schools inhabit the largest demographic sector of minorities, in which fail to prepare them for post-secondary education. Upon those who do decide to attend college “First-generation students are more likely than their non-first-generation counterparts to have additional characteristics that may disadvantage them as they pursue their college education” (Stebleton et al. 2014). Some of these characteristics can be transgressed into terms of G.P.A thus equating the capabilities of academic success upon an individual; thus inquiring qualities foundered among academic work ethic, responsibility, and intelligence. In addition, characteristics that 1st generation students entail are coming from minority backgrounds, learning disabilities, non-native English speakers, immigrants, single parents, and financially independent from their parents (Stebleton et al. 2014).…
Life's a journey worth taking the unbeaten path. That is why, despite looking up to my loving parents and having the utmost respect for them, I have taken a different road than they did. However, undergoing any challenge without their guiding experience can certainly prove to be an undertaking. I, a first generation college student, am the pioneer of higher education for my family. Though I join many others in lunging out into the world for the first time, I am doing so without having a father or mother to tell me how to tackle the college experience.…
Summary The article provides guidance for parents who have college bound teen agers that are headed to college. There are 4 main point of advise: 1) Make a plan, 2) If the disorder is presently active---don’t send them to college yet, 3) reach an agreement with your young adult about sticking to a plan and what are the consequences if they do not, 4) Buy tuition insurance. Having an agreed plan to avoid a reoccurrence is the most important single things a family can do for a young person going away from home.…
An early college student not only should have integrity, but also be responsible, kind, have time management, and respectful. All of these things will get you to your goals in life, and goals for school. Being responsible means that you take responsibility for your actions inside and outside of school, and you turn in all assignments on time. Having good time management goes into everything that you do in life. Schedule time for your school work, and outside activities so that you don't get all of your dates and more mixed all together and double plan.…