Upward mobility comes with a lot of social pressure, especially from a higher class that does not pertain to you initially. If you choose to assimilate into an Elite identity, you are revoking your roots. For example in Robert Grandfields article, “Making it by Faking it” he presents us with research on middle class students entering an ivy league University. The majority of the first year working class students did not feel like they belonged. A man interviewed stated he displayed his working class status in this elite environment by wearing, "work shirts or old flannel shirts and blue years everyday." evidently making him ostracised by his peers who in reality might hold the same ideological convictions according to Grandfield (Grandfield
From a young age, accomplishment is associated first with monetary gain and then with going to a good college. While my peers and I are currently fixated on the latter, Outliers has shown us there is no need to be. With Nobel prize winners coming from anywhere from MIT to Holy Cross and Stanford to Rollins (Gladwell, 81-82), success is not determined by the higher learning institution one chooses to go to, although it certainly does not hurt to attend a prestigious one. As I look to the application process I am deterred by many things that should send me towards success. Being a Caucasian, upper-middle class citizen, I am perhaps the most replaceable student in the world with thousands just like me, hoping for the same chance I look forward too. However, I feel it is what I have done in the summers that will set me apart. Karl Alexander realized that privileged students tend to ‘outlearn’ underprivileged children over the summer, something I am beginning to see more clearly. This past summer, I was fortunate enough to be part of the 6-percent accepted to the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes for Business and Entrepreneurship. It took only a few days to realize that I was the only true ‘white kid’. With the majority coming from Asian descent, the only other kid at the camp who may have been Caucasian came from a Panamanian family. As I noticed this, I realized
It shows how ivy colleges prefer legacy admissions. Although it is not illegal, but recently “two legal theories” are offered under which “legacy preferences could be challenged at both public and private institutions under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause (Ladeswki-578).” The civil act of 1866 prevents the states from giving titles of nobility. Minorities since most of elite university’s alumni belong to upper class families. Americans are concerned about such type of practices as “it creates doubt about institution’s commitment to meritocracy and equal opportunity (Mullen-47).” On the contrary, three out of four Americans oppose ancestry based discrimination so they can create equal opportunities for lower class families to get into elite colleges.
In his novel, Making Societies, William G. Roy expresses class as “social relationships that are understood by participants to be hierarchical on the basis of socioeconomic group membership, reinforced by major institutions and recurrent over time” (Roy, 158). With this definition in mind, my family would be considered upper-middle class in today’s societal terms, or upper class based upon Roy’s explanation. Max Weber identifies three concepts that determine the class categories: education, religion, and medicine. We can use these parameters in order to argue that my family has used class advantages in order to get into ISU.
The narrator, who does not come from extreme wealth, privilege, or class has trouble dealing with his lack of social prominence. The school has an elite group of boys, which the narrator is not a member of, who are understood to “get a leg up from their famous names or great wealth”(3-4). Being a senior, the narrator has spent the past three years assimilating to the social customs of his school and adapting the attitude of the elite boys. He has recognized many normalities that some of his peers such as Purcell and George Kellogg live by. The boys have a constant laidback and relaxed attitude that is fostered because of their innate understanding of their wealth. They wear clothes loosely and without care and do not give much thought to their future. Additionally, through their class and wealth the elite boys are grouped together and bonded by what seems, as the narrator describes : “tribal tattoos”. This high class attitude of some of the students is ever present as the narrators says, “Class was a fact….His way of turning cold at the mention of money, or at the spectacle of ambition too nakedly revealed”(15). The narrator realizes that public school attitude and being on scholarship, like he is, are repugnant at his school. Rather than announce his perceived shortcomings, in social capital, the narrator is very quiet and abstains from showing his true self to his school.
As mentioned before, Irish Americans had to climb their way up the social hierarchy. More often than not, this group traded their economic standing in order to be considered part of the white dominant race meaning that they would usually work for low wages in exchange for a sense of belonging into the dominant group. Because of this, Irish Americans were affected by poverty. However, there were some economic factors that contributed to the upward mobility of Irish Americans. A significant amount of Irish Americans became mobile by the 20th century, this upward mobility of Irish Americans is largely due to Urban political machines and the timing in which they entered the urban economy. In a fortunate series of events, many working men and women entered the country when companies were expanding and when various industries needed large amounts of workers, who were only to be paid with low wage.
Social tendency among monarchies exalt high amenities and luxurious lifestyle in favor of power. Traditionally in sovereign government, family lineage is prioritized in the succession of power, exemplifying aspects such as of heir, inheritance, and birthright. Evolved from past reigns, today’s generation of working class individuals pass down experience and networks to heritage in order to persevere wealth in the family. Ho vindicates the dependence of pedigree in education and employment saying, “For decades, general, ‘open’ recruiting was not standard practice for most businesses: Ivy League graduates relied on family wealth and networks, entered graduate school or approached, via the ‘old boys’ network’ for financial or industrial fast-track grooming” (182). Students with not only well established educational but also family background have better opportunity to succeed financially. Wall Street attract students with similar background as a tactic to fixate its recruitment as well as its income. Behaviorism justifies the popular demand of highly prodigious student recruitment because students in that position desire to continue being superior. This leads to ideology of elitism, where the mindset of self advancement overwhelms the individual to desire the highest position of power. Without pedigree, individuals often struggle to have an effective impact on the job
It shows how ivy colleges prefer legacy admissions. Although it is not illegal, but recently “two legal theories” are offered under which “legacy preferences could be challenged at both public and private institutions under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause (Ladeswki-578).” The civil act of 1866 prevents the states from giving titles of nobility. Minorities since most of elite university’s alumni belong to upper class families. Americans are concerned about such type of practices as “it creates doubt about institution’s commitment to meritocracy and equal opportunity (Mullen-47).” On the contrary, three out of four Americans oppose ancestry based discrimination so they can create equal opportunities for lower class families to get into elite colleges.
Essentially people from higher socioeconomic status backgrounds are not only more opportune, but one could say they are also considered more "qualified" for the higher influential jobs. People of higher socioeconomic backgrounds not only have better chances at these jobs but have better preparation opportunities for these jobs. Going to college for a higher education and being able to travel for work or being properly prepared for an interview are all factors that affect the opportunity at even being considered a candidate for the job. An example of this is how many league ownerships are kept in the family and passed down from generation to generation.
high social standing, or in other words the American Dream. The American dream being if you work hard to pursue
Mantsios’ article explores the idea that there is a hidden curriculum in lower class schools that causes the working class to remain in the working class due to their education. He provides a great statistical chart that shows students who were from wealthier families scored significantly higher than students who were from lower class families. Anyon’s “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” directly relates to this. Anyon’s goal was to discover that hidden curriculum that Mantsios talks about. Anyon studied schools and found that the working class schools focused on explanations as
With the growing importance of higher education, more people than ever are attending college. According to a middle-class parent, “[Higher education] seen as a means of developing a career and getting secure employment.” (30, Higher Education, social class and social mobility) Moreover, “parents believe that their children need a university education to get on in life… over the past decades (parents) fearful that without a degree their children will be in danger of downward social mobility. (32, Higher
In my personal opinion, I believe America is not still a place you can begin with the basics and get to upper class due to various obstacles. The obstacles consist basically of discrimination; racism, gender, and poverty. The people in upper class mostly consists of those with inheritances. First, I believe being an immigrant plays a big role in some aspects of reaching the upper class. In America if you’re an immigrant, it’s difficult or almost impossible to have the same opportunities as a citizen of the United States. For example, you’re not allowed to receive scholarships or grants. Which may be the only way some people can attend colleges due to money issues. Also, very limited government benefits. If not all educational opportunities
Additionally, the aspirations of most immigrants are that they will have upward mobility when they get into the United States, but unfortunately, in several instances, they may face unexpected downward mobility. Downward mobility may occur due to many factors. The socioeconomic mobility of immigrants is largely determined by the
Can we ever truly escape the place that we come from? Many people, especially during the most recent election, talk about upward mobility as if people can easily change their position in life, however this is not necessarily true. Personally, I believe that upward mobility is not as easy as people tend to believe it is. In my family, my mother and both of her sisters are well-educated. Though they all studied at prestigious private colleges, which hypothetically should have helped them escape from the cycle of the lower middle class, only one of the three achieved social mobility. A variety of factors pulled my mother and her younger sister back down, most significantly, the situation they grew up in and the gender roles they continued
Sociologist Robert Granfield studied the effects of class stigma in upwardly mobile, working-class students at an Ivy League law school. He found that although these students had embraced their class status before entering college, they “soon came to define themselves and their