Privileged Information: Gatekeeping Practices among Black Undergraduates at an Elite College

• In Event: 038 - Regular Session. Sociology of Education: Disadvantaged Students in Advantaged Contexts

Abstract

Middle class and lower-income students receive unequal information about the college application process. Drawing on thirty-five in-depth interviews with black undergraduates at Midtown College, this article examines the college experiences respondents share with prospective students and also their evaluations of the potential fit between home friends and Midtown. Privilege at Midtown is a salient factor in the assessment of institutional fit for lower-income respondents, but not for their middle class peers. Lower-income respondents are split: undergraduates who graduated from public schools, the Doubly Disadvantaged, explain who fits into Midtown to prospective students, highlighting how they do not, while lower-income undergraduates from private high schools, the Privileged Poor, explain how to fit in, highlighting how they do. Middle class respondents believe their home friends would be successful at Midtown while the Doubly Disadvantaged believe their home friends would struggle. The Privileged Poor, who have more racially and socioeconomically diverse precollege networks, qualify their recommendations of home friends and often refer to high school peers instead. Understanding gatekeeping practices of current undergraduates sheds light on how micro-interactions can lead to the widening or narrowing of pathways for nontraditional admits.

Authors

• Anthony Abraham Jack, Harvard University

• Veronique Irwin, University of California-Berkeley