Trust Networks, Prestige, and the Management of Uncertainty in Graduate Admissions

• In Event: Power, Prestige, Legitimacy, and Identity

Abstract

Stratification in doctoral education can be partly explained through graduate admissions criteria, compelling analysis of why faculty rely on the criteria they do. Drawing from an ethnographic study of faculty decision making in admission to highly ranked doctoral programs, in this paper I present three themes. First, faculty use status to manage the uncertainty entailed in interpreting applications and predicting applicant success. Second, trust networks help explain frequent patterns of student exchange among highly ranked programs. Finally, professors’ own institutional affiliations mediate perceptions of prestige and trust. Implications for the risk of unwarranted mistrust and the need to build reflection into admissions practice are discussed.

Author

• Julie Renee Posselt, University of Michigan