High-achieving students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to end up at less selective institutions compared to their socioeconomically advantaged peers with similar academic qualifications. A key reason for this is that few highly able, socioeconomically disadvantaged students apply to selective institutions in the first place. In Unequal Choices, Yang Va Lor examines the college application choices of high-achieving students, looking closely at the ways the larger contexts of family, school, and community influence their decisions. For students today, contexts like high schools and college preparation programs shape the type of colleges that they deem appropriate, while family upbringing and personal experiences influence how far from home students imagine they can apply to college. Additionally, several mechanisms reinforce the reproduction of social inequality, showing how institutions and families of the middle and upper-middle class work to procure advantages by cultivating dispositions among their children for specific types of higher education opportunities.
Author(s): Yang Va Lor
Series: The American Campus
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 156
City: New Brunswick
Contents
Introduction
1. Frames of College Attendance
2. Frames of College Preparation
3. Schemas of Colleges
4. Narratives of Interdependence and Independence
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
References
Index
About the Author
