1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910452730803321

Autore

Armstrong Elizabeth A.

Titolo

Paying for the party : how college maintains inequality / / Elizabeth A. Armstrong, Laura T. Hamilton

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, Massachusetts : , : Harvard University Press, , 2013

ISBN

9780674073517 (ebook)

0674073541

0674073517

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (344 pages) : illustrations

Disciplina

378.19822

Soggetti

Educational sociology - United States

Public universities and colleges - United States

Women college students - United States - Social conditions

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures and Tables -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1 The Women -- 2 The Party Pathway -- 3 Rush and the Party Scene -- 4 The Floor -- 5 Socialites, Wannabes, and Fit with the Party Pathway -- 6 Strivers, Creaming, and the Blocked Mobility Pathway -- 7 Achievers, Underachievers, and the Professional Pathway -- 8 College Pathways and Post- College Prospects -- 9 Politics and Pathways -- APPENDIX A: Participants -- APPENDIX B: Studying Social Class -- APPENDIX C: Data Collection, Analysis, and Writing -- APPENDIX D: Ethical Considerations -- Notes -- References -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Two young women, dormitory mates, embark on their education at a big state university. Five years later, one is earning a good salary at a prestigious accounting firm. With no loans to repay, she lives in a fashionable apartment with her fiancé. The other woman, saddled with burdensome debt and a low GPA, is still struggling to finish her degree in tourism. In an era of skyrocketing tuition and mounting concern over whether college is "worth it," Paying for the Party is an indispensable contribution to the dialogue assessing the state of American higher education. A powerful exposé of unmet obligations and misplaced



priorities, it explains in vivid detail why so many leave college with so little to show for it. Drawing on findings from a five-year interview study, Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton bring us to the campus of "MU," a flagship Midwestern public university, where we follow a group of women drawn into a culture of status seeking and sororities. Mapping different pathways available to MU students, the authors demonstrate that the most well-resourced and seductive route is a "party pathway" anchored in the Greek system and facilitated by the administration. This pathway exerts influence over the academic and social experiences of all students, and while it benefits the affluent and well-connected, Armstrong and Hamilton make clear how it seriously disadvantages the majority. Eye-opening and provocative, Paying for the Party reveals how outcomes can differ so dramatically for those whom universities enroll.