Introduction
Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality, is a book constructed on thorough ethnographic research and social science. It primarily targets universities and secondary education – to be specific, how female college students handle the struggles they face in their first years at a major university, as well as the struggles they face when they finally do graduate. Authors Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton come to the conclusion that many college campuses are doing an inadequate job of helping their students be successful while in school, and they analyze all of the factors that play a role in their success, or lack thereof. The main concept of the book is that the university essentially enables a party pathway through
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These pathways include the Mobility Pathway, the Professional Pathway, and the Party Pathway. While these labels are very generic, they still help to explain a lot about the students’ goals and expectations as they first enter the college scene. The Mobility Pathway provides vocational training to anyone who is willing to work hard to get it. These students are typically less privileged so they rely on their education to find a job rather than their families. These students are trying to use college as a way to build their careers and rise in socio-economic class. The Professional Pathway is very competitive when it comes to getting into top programs, internships, and financial awards. These students can come from just about any background, but they see their undergraduate coursework as the first step in higher education. They plan on pursuing a career in law or medicine where additional schooling is required. There is very little room for error with this pathway so many students are weeded out in the beginning. The Party Pathway is comprised mostly of affluent students and do not cost the school very much money as they do not require financial assistance. They tend to choose “easy majors” (which surprisingly are supported by the school) so they can focus on their social life more than academics. Regardless of what major they choose, they rely on …show more content…
This may have been due to the large size of the school, but also seems somewhat strategized: “The size and diversity of student bodies at MU and similar schools make [creating a unified learning community] a challenge. We did not observe an effort on the part of MU to do so.” (228) This does not come as a huge surprise, but it does play a role in the future these women have. The women who succeeded were well connected with their own specific social group, rather than to the whole. The women who did not succeed often said that they felt lonely and distant from groups on campus. They seemed to be unaware of the groups that existed on campus and may have been the perfect fit for them.
Speaking in terms of success, just how well did the women in the study do? A few did well and some of the partiers even landed themselves a good job, even though their education might not have had much to do with it. The majority of the professional pathway women were able to earn the degrees they wanted—although not always the employment they had envisioned. And a small number of the “mobility” students completed their studies at IU and found fairly good
In Tokarczyk’s essay, “Promises to Keep: Working Class Students and Higher Education,” she claims that working class students face both academic and institutional barriers in getting college degrees. According to Tokarczyk, working class students usually lack preparation for post-secondary education, which she categorizes as an “academic barrier” (85). Problems such as school policies that are not designed for working class students, peers who are not able to understand the situations that they have, and faculty m...
In Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton’s Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality, Midwestern University’s structure is discussed in regard to its composition that fosters class structure. Both authors claim that incoming college classes are very diverse in social class structure, however, by the time they graduate they’re social mobility has not shown a difference. Using an ethnographic approach, Armstrong and Hamilton argue that student experiences are fundamentally shaped by their educational institution.
In Frank Bruni’s New York Time’s article, “The Imperiled Promise of College,” he argues that college is no longer a guarantee of success because students are not being properly motivated and guided into the programs that will provide them with jobs.
Subsequently what is done is that selected high schools develop a curriculum that is organized around a specific career cluster, which are like a specialized charter school. The goal is to feature a series advanced “pathway” courses that can help students to enrich their knowledge through work-based learning and academics. In turn, this specialized education will allow student to demonstrate their understanding through assessments and industry credentialing opportunities. As well these schools are enrolled in a learning exchange that have partnerships that are organized to support the programs of study by coordinating statewide networks of education partners, businesses, industry associations, labor, and other organizations (2013, p. 21-23). Consequently, the program is driven to help high school students develop a career path and to receive exploratory education that will given them an advantage in either college endeavors or in the job market.
In a society where a collegiate degree is almost necessary to make a successful living, the idea that a student cares less about the education and more about the “college experience” can seem baffling. In My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student, Rebekah Nathan, the author’s pseudonym, tackles the idea that academics are less impactful on a student then the culture of college life. Nathan, a 50-year-old cultural anthropologist and university professor, went undercover as a college freshman for a research project. From her research, she hoped to better understand the undergraduate experience by fully immersing herself in college life. To do this, she anonymously applied to “AnyU,” a fake acronym for a real university,
In this brief report, I will be examining common practices, policies and resources that support Black women attending Princeton University. Included is a brief review of national averages in regards to higher education attainment and a rationale for continued rhetoric on this topic. My interest in this topic stem from my experience at State University’s Women Studies Program. While the conversation around gender is necessary and crucial, little attention was given to discussions of how race and gender affect an individual’s lived experience. I was constantly aware of my lack of representation among students who were in those classes and the faculty who taught.
How imperative is it that one pursues a traditional college experience? Although it might appear that Charles Murray and Liz Addison are in agreement that the traditional college experience is not necessary for everyone, Addison provides a more convincing argument that higher education is necessary in some form. This is seen through Addison’s arguments that college is essential to growing up, that education is proportional to the life one lives, and that community college reinvents the traditional college experience. Not only does Addison have her own opinions about college, but Murray does as well.
An industry that once promoted fairness and attainability was now itself becoming an obstacle to overcome. “American universities are in fact organized according to middle- and upper-class cultural norms or rules of the game and that these norms do indeed constitute an unseen academic disadvantage for first-generation college students transitioning to university settings” (Stephens et. al, 2012). This proposed characteristic serves as an almost uncontrollable and unchangeable disadvantage that students will likely fail to subdue. Institutions should serve as mediating platforms that allow students to start at impartial grounds, where their talents, abilities and connections are the only factors that can influence their
“Nationally, more than one-quarter of the students in the 1930s were black. Yet they received only about one-tenth of the total education revenues. Many Americans believed that African Americans were simply not capable of excelling in school” (“The 1930’s education…”). For colored women, it was more difficult to prove their abilities than any other race. For example, Asian women were not affected as much simply because their skin color was closer to that of a white’s than a black person. As black women were treated unequally in the education department, white women have also struggled in getting a higher education. “They gave young women a chance to gain the same kinds of education as their brothers without having to spend much of their time and energy fighting the prejudice they would have faced at male-dominated institutions. At the same time, they provided a proving-ground in which college administrators, professors, and students could demonstrate that women could flourish intellectually while remaining healthy and ladylike.” (“The Value
The right and privilege to higher education in today’s society teeters like the scales of justice. In reading Andrew Delbanco’s, “College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, it is apparent that Delbanco believes that the main role of college is to accommodate that needs of all students in providing opportunities to discover individual passions and dreams while furthering and enhancing the economic strength of the nation. Additionally, Delbanco also views college as more than just a time to prepare for a job in the future but a way in which students and young adults can prepare for their future lives so they are meaningful and purposeful. Even more important is the role that college will play in helping and guiding students to learn how to accept alternate point of views and the importance that differing views play in a democratic society. With that said, the issue is not the importance that higher education plays in society, but exactly who should pay the costly price tag of higher education is a raging debate in all social classes, cultures, socioeconomic groups and races.
In this article Nemko is illuminating the issues that our modern society is facing involving higher education. Students are starting off college with bare minimum requirements for next level learning and feeling disappointed when they are not succeeding in their courses. The author acknowledges that the courses being taken by students are sometimes not beneficial to life after college. Nemko states, “A 2006 study supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 50 percent of college seniors scored below ‘proficient’ levels on a test that required them to do such basic tasks…”(525). Students are specializing in areas of learning to in turn be denied to working in that field and stuck with unnecessary skills. “Many college graduates are forced to take some very nonprofessional positions, such as driving a truck or tending bar”( ...
The androcentric view of history often fails to acknowledge the achievements of notable women who have made profound impacts that have revolutionized the way in which we see the world, as well as the universe. Although the modernized 21st century society is more apt to recognize the achievements of women with an equivocal perspective with men, it was not always so. During the early 20th century, women were consistently denied equality with men due to a perverse androcentric, male-dominated perspective that deemed women as subordinate and insignificant. This androcentric perspective limited the opportunities available to women at the time, leaving them only with domestic occupations that were deemed acceptable for women such as nurses, teachers or clerics. Very few women aspired for higher education, and even fewer achieved it. There were very few colleges that accepted women at the time, save for those erected for women alone. It is because of this, women rarely e...
In Caroline Bird’s “College is A Waste of Time and Money”, it’s argued that there are many college students who would be better off if they were to begin working after high school graduation. Colleges and universities can no longer ensure that one will go on to get a better job, getting paid more than they would have without a higher education. However, high school seniors still stress about where they will be attending college, how they’re going to pay for it and what they’re going to study for the next four years. Bird points out how college has changed over the past few decades and how, in turn, it has set many young adults up for disappointment, if nothing else.
Discounted Dreams: High Hopes and Harsh Realities at America’s Community College. Prod. John Merrow. PBS Home Video 2007. DVD.
Women have had quite a few hurdles to get over since the 1950's. In 1958 the proportion of women attending college in comparison with men was 35 percent. (Friedan,