Those Who Choose and Those Who Don't

Social Background and College Orientation

Bibliographic Data

ID5741352
AuthorsE Grodsky (0000-0003-2178-0803, University of Minnesota System), Catherine Riegle-Crumb (0000-0003-0855-3614, The University of Texas at Austin)
Year2010
Volume627
Issue1
Pages14-35
Publication date2010-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7162 • E-ISSN: 1552-3349
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002716209348732
OpenAlexW2101005531
LanguageEN
Citations received78
References cited26

Empirical research on the decision to attend college is predicated largely on the assumption that students make conscious, utility-maximizing decisions about their educational careers. For many students this may not be the case; in fact, the authors find that a large share of students assume from a young age that they will attend college, exhibiting what might be called a college-going habitus. Consistent with critical arguments about how social class is reproduced, the authors find that white, native-born children of college-educated parents are more likely to take college for granted than their less advantaged peers. Students with a college-going habitus are more likely than others to apply to a four-year college by spring of their senior year in high school. Although social origin accounts for some of the association between habitus and college application, both advantaged and disadvantaged students appear to benefit from a college-going habitus

Class (philosophy) · Cultural capital · Disadvantaged · Habitus · Higher education · Mathematics education · Political science · Social class · Social science · Sociology · Higher Education Research Studies · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Psychology · School Choice and Performance · Social Psychology

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