Competing or Keeping a Balance: Upper-Middle-Class High School Students and the College Admission Arms Race

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

Abstract

High-SES families in America have long benefited from privileged access to selective higher education institutions. In recent decades, however, admissions to high-ranking four-year colleges has become increasingly competitive as the number of high school graduates pursuing post-secondary credentials and the academic standards for admission of college have increased. Research suggests that high-SES families and their children have adapted to this development by investing more resources and effort in preparing for college to maintain their class advantage, leading to increased stress and academic pressure among high-SES students during high school. However, few sociological studies to date have examined how these competitive pressures shape the socialization experiences of high-SES adolescents. To address this gap, the present paper asks: how do the competitive pressures associated with college admissions shape the selves that high-SES students cultivate as emerging adults? Drawing on interviews and ethnographic observations collected at three suburban high schools located in the American Northeast, my analysis points to two vastly different responses of high-SES students to the arms-race dynamic of college admissions. While some high school students systematically work on building a resume for college and invest in cultivating a “competitive” self, other students participate in the college admissions arms race much more reluctantly and cultivate what I call a “balanced self.” These findings contribute to scholarship on class differences in access to higher education by documenting intra-class differences in the college orientation of high-SES students that have been largely overlooked to date.

Author

• Stefan Beljean, Harvard University