Crossing the finish line? A review of college completion inequality in the United States by race and class

Although most students graduate from high school and enroll in college the following fall, rates of entry into higher education and completion of a bachelor's degree continue to be stratified by race and class. Because of the potential returns that accrue to individuals and society overall when students complete their 4‐year degree, these disparate trends should motivate more policy‐relevant research in this area. In this review, I show how a longitudinal perspective of the path to a BA degree helps to reconcile competing theories of college completion by race and class across disciplinary boundaries. Both human capital theory and status attainment theory largely examine college completion as the long‐term process of BA attainment, although they differ in their focal stages and mechanisms. In contrast, the theory of categorical inequality, as applied in this review, focuses on the years in higher education and describes the ways in which colleges and universities as organizations create, legitimate, and reinforce categorical distinctions in postsecondary schooling and how these processes independently shape college completion inequality. As public interest grows in holding colleges accountable for their graduation rates, more research is needed on how the formal and informal organizational policies and practices of colleges produce inequality.     

‘Crossing lines of difference’: how college students analyse diversity

Contemporary American college students confront increased diversity during their college years—in race, class, nationality, religion, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, age, and disability. Yet, how do students conceptualize this diversity, evaluate the options it provides, and assess its limitations? Furthermore, how do those researching diversity develop approaches that are flexible and open enough to reflect emerging student ways of thinking about diversity? Based on work at a diverse US public university—especially a pilot project on free‐form student essays—this paper examines how students conceptually navigate an environment that both encourages and inhibits interaction across difference. These students indicate scepticism about the marketing of diversity and frustration at the limited interaction across difference on campus, yet also an appreciation of the opportunities that diversity provides.     

Rural Students’ Social Capital in the College Search and Application Process

Although the growing mandate for higher education creates challenges for students in rural areas, rural high school graduates currently attend college at a rate similar to their peers in other locale types. Prior research has attributed this accomplishment to family, school, and community social capital, yet the processes through which students translate social capital into educational attainment remain unspecified. This study examines how successful rural students access and engage various forms of social capital during the college search and application process. Analysis of semistructured interviews with 30 college graduates from communities throughout one predominantly rural state showed that family social capital provided most students with generalized support, but college‐specific guidance tended to correlate with parental education and income. Most students benefited from school social capital, primarily through pro‐college climate, peer networks, teachers, guidance counselors, and academic tracking. Students accessed community social capital through supportive youth and adult interactions, extended family ties, and a caring community, but these forms of social capital did not explicitly support the college search process. Although quantitative studies have operationalized family, school, and community social capital as distinct concepts, this study argues that these constructs cannot be disentangled given the interconnectedness of rural families, schools, and communities.     

Social Capital,Place of Residence,and College Attendance1

The relationship between social interaction and college attendance is examined across varying types of communities. Structural arrangements and interaction patterns that foster positive relationships are regarded as social capital and are conceptualized as investments that can yield human capital returns in terms of higher educational attainment. Logistic regression procedures are employed to analyze data from the High School and Beyond Longitudinal Study. The social capital model of college attendance is estimated for the full sample and separately for high school students living in urban, suburban, and rural communities. Predicted probabilities of attending college for students with high and low social capital are obtained. Results of these analyses indicate that parental expectation of college attendance is the most powerful predictor of subsequent college attendance among variables examined. Measures of community social capital and parental human capital also strongly predict attendance.     

Variation in the Relationship Between Education and Marriage: Marriage Market Mismatch?

Educational expansion has led to greater diversity in the social backgrounds of college students. We ask how schooling interacts with this diversity to influence marriage formation among men and women. Relying on data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 3208), we use a propensity score approach to group men and women into social strata and multilevel event history models to test differences in the effects of college attendance across strata. We find a statistically significant, positive trend in the effects of college attendance across strata, with the largest effects of college on first marriage among the more advantaged and the smallest-indeed, negative-effects among the least advantaged men and women. These findings appear consistent with a mismatch in the marriage market between individuals' education and their social backgrounds.     

Absurdly Ambitious? Teenagers’ Expectations for the Future and the Realities of Social Structure

Expectations for achievement in the US border on the unrealistic. High school students expect to obtain better jobs and more education than current cohorts have achieved. Many youth also seem unaware of how to realize their ambitions. These findings lead to several questions about the causes and consequences of ambition. First, how do American youths’ ambitions compare with those of past cohorts and what consequences stem from rising ambitions? Second, how likely is it that youth will achieve their ambitions? What structural forces hinder or assist the goal attainment process? Finally, what cultural and institutional forces shape ambition in the United States? We review available evidence for these questions. Experts agree that the youth are overly ambitious, but debate the consequences of over‐ambition. Furthermore, youth privileged by their race, class, and gender status are more likely to achieve their ambitions than less privileged youth, confirming the key sociological premise that broader social structures play an important role in whether individuals realize their dreams.     

Social Class and Habitus at the End of College: Cultural Similarity and Difference among Graduating Seniors

ABSTRACT

Existing research offers a range of perspectives on the impact of the college experience on culture. While some scholars claim that higher education leads to cultural convergence or homogenization among students, others emphasize the durability of class-based cultural differences during college. This article seeks to understand the degree to which students from across class backgrounds leave college with a similar habitus. Drawing from interviews with 62 graduating seniors from three distinct class backgrounds, I examine cultural similarities and differences at two layers of habitus as students look toward life after college. Findings demonstrate that while students’ specific aspirations for graduate study and careers are similar, their general cultural schemas—evidenced by students’ perceptions of what constitutes success and failure after graduation—and sense of self diverge along class lines. In other words, these interviews provide evidence that college seniors across class backgrounds are comparable in their secondary habitus but differ at the level of their primary habitus. These findings have implications for the way we conceive of social mobility through higher education as well as our understanding of multiple layers of habitus.     

Everything but racism: A critical analysis of Latina/o college sorority and fraternity research

The persisting disparity in college graduation rates along racial and ethnic lines combined with growing Latina/o college‐age population has compelled an increasing number of researchers to examine inequalities in higher education outcomes. Some of these researchers have attempted to better understand Latina/o college experiences by researching Latina/o Greek life. In this article, I review the literature on Latina/o sororities and fraternities. I identify four approaches in the scholarship: Latina/o student development through campus involvement, Latina/o ethnic identity development through sorority or fraternity participation, finding cultural congruence in sorority and fraternity membership, and perceived discrimination and racial climates in college. This article reveals that scholarship about Latina/o Greek life examining race and racism is severely limited. Given the scope of existing work, I suggest that analysts have examined “everything but racism.” I conclude by highlighting some of the research on higher education that centers race and ethnicity as an analytical focus, demonstrating deeply embedded processes that impact Latina/o college student success. I argue that research about race and racism in college points to significant opportunities for researchers seeking to examine how Latinas/os navigate such environments, as Greek life is woven into the social and academic fabric of higher education institutions.     

Parental financial support and filial responsibility in emerging adulthood: a comparative study between the United States and South Korea

Why do parents provide considerable financial support to their children in college? How do college students feel about their parental financial support and how does it differ between American and Korean cultural contexts? Based on multiple group analysis, we tested the impact of family income and parents’ education on parental tuition and living expenses supports, which in turn affects college students’ perception of filial responsibility across the United States and South Korea. Participants included 179 American college (AC) students from Syracuse University and 268 Korean college (KC) students from Yonsei University Wonju. We found that family income was significantly related to an increase in parental tuition and living expenses supports for both AC and KC students. However, parents’ education was significantly related to an increase in parental tuition and living expenses supports for AC students, but not for KC students. In addition, parental tuition support was related to an increase for filial responsibility, and parental living expenses were related to a decrease in filial responsibility in KC students, but not for AC students. These results indicate that the association between parental financial support and college students’ perception of filial responsibility differs across American and Korean cultural contexts.     

A (not so) simple dialogue activity

ABSTRACT

This article explores the research on peer-to-peer dialogue in higher education, including the innovative practice of intergroup dialogue and other practices such as nonviolent communication and contemplative listening. I then describe an activity I do with my community college students, in a context where lack of time and other resources do not allow a more resource-intensive dialogue practice. I ask them to experience dialogue with several free, easily available resources, including nonviolent communication, contemplative practice, and public radio podcasts from On Being, then have a conversation outside of class in which they mostly practice deeply listening to someone with different political beliefs than they have. They may make a brief attempt at dialogue or nonviolent communication. I discuss how my activity may accomplish some of the goals of intergroup dialogue and be useful where students are learning about diversity and inequality across social divides, including in social work education and sustainability education. I nest this activity in a course that involves some contemplative practice, to explore how both sustainability education and the social justice component of social work may benefit from contemplative practice. Finally, I detail some other resources about hope and despair that support this activity.     

Disasters and Social Inequalities

In this article, I review recent research on the relationship between social inequalities and disasters, focusing on the areas of social vulnerability to disaster and social inequalities in disaster recovery. I highlight how race, class, and gender structure the disaster experience such that marginalized populations are most vulnerable to the negative consequences of a disaster and face significant challenges in recovery. Then, I discuss the next steps for advancing disaster studies. First, scholars should work to develop improved methodologies for disaster research. Second, theoretical work on defining, theorizing, and classifying disasters is needed. Finally, the field should incorporate other intersectional dimensions of social inequality into the study of disasters.     

Social Capital and Residential Decision Making Among Rural and Nonrural College Graduates

Due to the low demand for highly educated workers in rural areas, high‐achieving rural students have been portrayed as having to pick between staying close to home and facing limited economic opportunities or leaving to pursue higher education and socioeconomic advancement. But what of those who want both—college degree and return to rural living? Comparing the experiences of rural graduates who returned to rural locales with those who out‐migrated and nonrural graduates across one predominantly rural state, this study explores how social capital matters in the residential decision‐making process. Proximity to work and family were the primary factors determining adult residence. Sense of place—but not attachment to a specific community—also mattered, especially for rural graduates. Family, school, and community social capital were more likely to play a role in career development for rural students, as career aspirations during adolescence followed by career‐driven college choices created pathways for rural return. Findings underscore the importance of analyzing rural return from a regional lens, as respondents reframed lifestyle elements researchers tend to portray as mutually exclusive—rural lifestyle, proximity to family, and professional career—as compatible by employing broad and flexible definitions of proximity and place.     

Beyond hookup culture: Current trends in the study of college student sex and where to next

A prominent body of sexuality research on college‐enrolled students in the twenty‐first century focuses on “hookup” culture, marked by the prevalence of sexual encounters between students with no expectation for a relationship to develop. This article will review and respond to current themes in the literature on hookup culture on college campuses. I argue that this literature privileges the White, middle‐class heterosexual experience, although less is known about how students who cannot or choose not to participate in this culture experience sexual relationships on college campuses. I place studies of hookup culture in conversation with those attentive to the effects of race, class, gender, and sexuality on access to, and experience of, hookup culture. I conclude with suggestions for future research, to include a renewed interest in sexual relationships forged outside of hookup cultures.     

Differences Between Black/African American and White College Students Regarding Influences on High School Completion,College Attendance,and Career Choice

Compared with White persons, Black/African American persons in the United States continue to experience high rates of educational deficits and employment stagnation as well as lower college graduation rates. This study examined the influences on Black/African American and White college students' high school completion, college attendance, and career choice. Results indicate that future income and future status have a greater influence on the career choice of Black/African American college students than on the career choice of White college students. The authors discuss these findings and present implications for career development professionals.     

What do we know about LGBQ+ college student academic experiences and outcomes?

In spite of recognition that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer+ (LGBQ+) young adults face challenges associated with their sexual identities, research on inequality in education has only recently begun examining their academic experiences and outcomes in college. Prior work has mainly focused on social and extracurricular experiences during college or academic outcomes among LGBQ+ students in K-12 settings. In this article, we review the growing body of social science literature on LGBQ+ college students' academic outcomes. A strength of our review is our integration of research on individual, interpersonal, and institutional characteristics and experiences that influence LGBQ+ student outcomes. In reviewing the literature, we identify a number of methodological and theoretical limitations, such as a lack of precision and consistency in defining and conceptualizing LGBQ+ identities and experiences and limited attention to intersections with race, class, and gender. We offer some solutions to these limitations and present a theoretical framework that promises to add clarity and further reliability to future research on LGBQ+ college student outcomes. We conclude by suggesting directions for future research.     

Class, Culture, and Participation in the Collegiate Extra-Curriculum

With larger percentages of high school students entering higher education, it becomes increasingly important to look at how processes occurring on college campuses contribute to social stratification. Using in‐depth interviews with 61 students, I ask: How does social class structure students’ participation in the collegiate extra‐curriculum? I argue that the collegiate extra‐curriculum is an important site for stratification because it is there that students gain access to social and cultural resources valued by the privileged classes. I find that upper‐middle‐class students arrive on campus with cultural resources that motivate their participation and social resources that facilitate their involvement. Among working‐class students, limited financial factors constrain their involvement, while social and cultural resources further curtail their interest in such activities. These findings contribute to theories of social and cultural reproduction by showing that those who have more valued social and cultural resources at the outset are in a better position to gain additional such resources throughout their college careers. Moreover, these analyses show that symbolic and cultural hierarchies are sustained by the interdependent relationship between social and cultural capital.     

When the Learning Disabled Go to College

Abstract

During the last decade, federal laws have provided for remedial education in elementary and secondary schools for students with learning disabilities, preparing large numbers of them for college. Federal law also mandates helping learning-disabled students with their needs once they matriculate. Declining numbers of high school graduates in the aftermath of the baby boom have made more colleges open their doors to these students. The disabilities, and the accommodations they require, arrive in college with the rest of a student's baggage, demanding attention. Colleges and universities have chosen a variety of approaches, from specific remedial programs and individual accomodations according to need to more general programs. Some colleges pretend these disabilities do not exist and seem oblivious to their presence on campus. Learning disabilities can have an impact in every class and lecture hall and can contribute to unhappiness and the college's attrition rate. On the other hand, responsive and responsible programs provide students with the resources for the same education, honors, and opportunities as their nondisabled peers.     

Why Laundry,Not Hegel? Social Class,Transition to College,and Pathways to Adulthood

This article is part of a larger study looking at upper‐middle‐class, college‐bound high school seniors and their parents as they go through the college application process. The seniors we interviewed expect college to be a transformative experience that will affect their identities. But they also know they will experience upheavals in the routines of everyday life as they face changes of place, changes in responsibility for tasks, and changes in familial relationships. At this point of upheaval their anxiety is focused more on issues such as how to get their laundry done than on whether they will understand thinkers such as Hegel. These college‐bound students also see their ongoing transition to adulthood as a gradual, emerging process. The connection between social class and pathways to adulthood is explored.     

The Origin of Major Choice,Academic Commitment,and Career‐Decision Readiness Among Taiwanese College Students

The present study aimed to examine if and how career‐decision readiness relates to the origin of college major choice among Taiwanese college students. A total of 375 junior and senior college students (147 women, 228 men) responded to measures of college major choice, academic commitment, career self‐efficacy, and career‐decision readiness. Results indicated that students' academic commitment to a college major tend to increase when they choose their majors based on personal and career preferences. In sequence, high levels of academic commitment lead to high levels of career self‐efficacy, and increased self‐efficacy augments the extent of career‐decision readiness that students manifest near the end of their college education. These findings have practical implications insofar as many Asian students choose a college major because of parents and other authority figures, and these findings demonstrate that a full understanding of career‐decision readiness may require incorporating the origin of college major choice and its academic effects into future research.