No Other Way: Middle Class Self-exclusion in the College Application Process

• In Event: 2484 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Access to Education

Abstract

Studies show that advantaged classes mark status boundaries by excluding others from accessing goods or opportunities. This study instead shows that the advantaged classes draw boundaries by engaging in self-exclusion from less desirable trajectories. Drawing on observations and interviews with middle-class Chinese American parents and their high school children, I find that the parents perceive children’s college attendance as essential and reject the possibility of not going to college. Similarly, the students consider college attendance taken-for-granted and lack the option of skipping college. By showing how advantaged families self-exclude from undesirable educational pathways, this study reveals a key mechanism of distinction and highlights the internalized of class-based perceptions with which parents and children maintain status boundaries. The findings carry implications for theories of cultural capital and educational inequality.

Author

• Yi-Lin Chiang, National Chengchi University