Step Ladder or Status Distinction? Examining Motivations Behind Graduate Program Choice

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  In Roundtable Session: The Policies and Structures of Higher Education (Table 13)

Abstract

Graduate education is a growing sector of higher education that plays a role in widening income inequality. As heterogeneity within the graduate level increases, questions remain about how students choose between a host of programs that offer the same credential. Focusing on MBA programs, the most common master’s credentials, this paper draws on 40 semi-structured interviews with current MBA students to ask (1) how students assess the quality and value of particular programs and (2) how the logics of program choice differ across well-known prestige tiers? The emergent findings suggest stark differences across program prestige in both students’ assessments of programs and the logics they draw on to make a choice in ways that maintain occupational closure and economic inequality.

Author

• Ellen Bryer, Brown University