ipl-logo

Skidmore Social Class

1265 Words6 Pages

Empirical Essay #2- Social Class at Skidmore College

Social class, also known as socioeconomic status, is a complex term that contains various meanings, but can be loosely defined as “an individuals position in a stratified social order, [which] is composed of any combination of parental educational income, and family wealth”(Conley, 2013). A person’s socioeconomic status has the ability to dictate his/her present and future opportunity in many facets of life, such as the continuation of higher education, belonging to particular social groups, and type of occupations available. With that being said, I hypothesize that social class is a strong determinant in one’s social life at Skidmore College because of the limitations it can cause for …show more content…

Long constructed an intensive study on the effects of social class on belongingness within a small liberal arts college similar to Skidmore College. The survey included 322 participants taking multiple surveys about adjustment to college, sense of belongingness at college, and social class. The study found that “Indeed, social-class background was strongly related to a sense of belonging at college, which in turn predicted social and academic adjustment to college, quality of experience at college, and academic performance”(Ostrove and Long, 2007). This finding can be applied to the social class background of students at Skidmore College. Students of a lower socioeconomic background have a more difficult social adjustment than students of higher social class. Therefore, their social class inhibits their social life by making it harder to integrate into college and find a sense of …show more content…

My survey contained six questions that were focused on one’s social life in reference to their socioeconomic status. Because of methodological limitations, I use approximate household income as a proxy for socioeconomic status. My survey includes the following questions: Do you attend Skidmore College?; What is your approximate household income?; Do you sense that your friends are from a similar socioeconomic background?; How comfortable are you spending money in your day to day social life?(eating out, going to bars, etc.); Do you feel like your social life is inhibited by your ability to spend money?; Do you think Skidmore Students are understanding of their peers’ financial limitations?. After creating my survey on Survey Monkey, I electronically distributed my survey to my teammates, my friends, the Skidmore Class of 2019 Facebook group, my Facebook friends, and my Twitter followers. As a result, I received 52 responses. Although I did mention this survey is intended for Skidmore Students only, I received 2 respondents that were non-Skidmore students; therefore, I expunged their survey

Show More
Related

Rhetorical Analysis Of Serving In Florida By Gregory Mantsios

1318 Words | 6 Pages

The American dream is a dream of a land in which one can prosper with ambition and hard work. This idea has created many illusions for some because in reality the American dream is proven to be something that is rarely achieved. No individual is guaranteed success or destined for failure, but it is apparent that women, people of color, and those born into poverty will face greater obstacles than others, despite being a greater part of the American population. An author that tackles the issue of class in the United States is Gregory Mantsios. In his essay, “Class in America-2009”, Mantsios aims to prove that class affects people’s lives in drastic ways.

Read More

James Loewen The Land Of Opportunity Summary

515 Words | 3 Pages

In James W. Loewen’s “The Land of Opportunity,” he states that social class affects the way children are raised. He discusses the inequality in today’s society and how the textbooks in high school do not give any social class information. The students in today’s time are not taught everything they should be taught. He states that your family’s wealth is what makes up your future. Loewen discusses that people with more money can study for the SATs more productively and get a better score than someone who has less money.

Read More

Jay M Robinson High School Analysis

483 Words | 2 Pages

The middle class students tend to outperform their peers, with this group being predominantly white but not entirely. Lower class students, however, are made up of black, Hispanic and white students, and often are more inclined to be off task. There was one lower class white student, for example, who was off task for the entire class period and more focused on socializing with his friends than completing any sort of assignment. The most troubling thing about this individual was, judging by the half-completed assignment in front of them, they barely knew who to write and could not even compile a complete

Read More

Summary Of Class In America By Gregory Mantsios

686 Words | 3 Pages

Have you ever wanted to chase the American dream? It might be more impossible than people realize. Gregory Mantsios writes “Class in America-2012” about the growing and obvious class divide in America, yet no one wants to talk about the situation and the effects on the people. I will be analyzing the text and explaining the effects it has on the reader. Throughout the article Mantsios stays consistent with his opinion by providing multiple charts and graphs to back his point.

Read More

Henry Bienen: Why Too Many Kids Go To College

518 Words | 3 Pages

By today’s standards most of us may not even be middleclass any more. As Mr. Bienen, pointed out, attending college correlates to earning more in one’s lifetime. Thus, it is necessary for most students to graduate from college and obtain a good paying job so that they can once again live a middleclass lifestyle in this

Read More

William Domhoff's Who Rules America

1109 Words | 5 Pages

Generally speaking, American elites have access to the finer elements of society. More importantly, social clubs reinforce class dynamics and limit class mobility. Because those belonging to social clubs and institutions are generally members of the upper class, networking, befriending, and communicating only occurs within class lines, making it impossible for less fortunate individuals to transcend class boundaries. This sort of class division in American culture is generational, explaining the dominance of white, affluent males in social clubs - time has favored these demographics and there do not exist many chances for the economic less fortunate to overcome historical

Read More

Success In George Gladwell's The Outliers

595 Words | 3 Pages

Lower-class families frequently do not have the educational background to equip their children with the needed social skills to pursue success. He states, “his mother permits that casual incivility because she wants him to learn to assert himself with people in positions of authority… this kind of interaction simply doesn’t happen with lower class children (106-107)”. Wealthy and middle class parents are more often able to introduce social and analytical skills into their child’s life, which cannot be learned in a classroom. This enables the skill to interact with authority figure capable of making unintended opportunities occur. In the school environment social classes are irrelevant because they are all presented with the same education that allows them to learn at the same pace.

Read More

Summary Of Why America Is Self-Segregating By Danah Boyd

1006 Words | 5 Pages

After college, students entering the workforce will have no ties to the other social classes and may remain segregated. When colleges put different price tags on different rooms, students self-segregate unintentionally, allowing for the gap between social classes to broaden and adding to the segregation within the United

Read More

My Social Location Analysis

375 Words | 2 Pages

Another important contributor to my social location is my social class. This is a major factor in my outlook of life because it’s how I grew up. I would consider my family to be a part of the working class. Despite my family’s financial circumstances, my mother tried her best to provide a strong educational foundation. Thus, I was able to attend a catholic elementary and middle school.

Read More

Why Social Structure Is Important For College Students

681 Words | 3 Pages

Social structure in the US is an important topic that college students should learn. Social structure is the pattern of relationships among social positions in a society. Social structure helps people in the world figure out our social status, roles, and norms, which shape our behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs. Understanding social structure is urgent on the grounds that it gives a system for grasping social issues, Inequality, and power elements in the public eye. In this reflection paper, I will examine the reason why social structure is key for college students and what it means for their lives One of the main reasons why social structure is important for college students is that it provides a way to analyze and understand social problems.

Read More

Examples Of Discriminatory Practice In Health And Social

1729 Words | 7 Pages

There are four social classes: upper class, middle class, working class and under class. An example of people who may be discriminated against because of their social class would be someone who is poor. Individuals who are poor, under class and some working class, in school could be called ‘scruffy’ by their peers because they might not be able to afford new clothes. This could lead to teachers discriminating and treating students differently. This could show overt and covert discrimination in a health and social care setting.

Read More

Social Stratification Of Social Class In The United States

784 Words | 4 Pages

All through this course there has been many inquiry regarding social sciences, yet through doing diverse exercises in this course I had one fundamental inquiry. That inquiry is how do mental slants affect our practices to hold quick to sparing classes in the United States? Most sociologists characterize social class as a gathering in light of comparable social variables like riches, salary, instruction, and occupation. These elements influence how much power and notoriety a man has. Social stratification mirrors an unequal dispersion of assets.

Read More

Essay On Meritocracy And Education

1205 Words | 5 Pages

Education is affected by social class; directly and indirectly. Looking at directly first we can see that individuals from higher social classes are more likely to have the resources to attend the elicit schools, and as a result have a better chance of receiving high exam results and continuing to third level. While indirectly, people who benefit from these higher educational opportunities are more likely to acquire the top jobs which in turn will result in the highest salaries. Thus education and social class closely connected and one impacts the other. This paper will explore how ones’ social class affects their educational experience and outcome particularly focusing on working-class students.

Read More

Sociological Imagination In Education

1810 Words | 8 Pages

Our social location determines our access to power, privilege, or our lack of power and privilege. It gives us status and blocks us from having status. Statistically, there is thirty-seven percent of Americans who go to College while sixty-four percent do not. I am an African American eighteen-year-old

Read More

Social Class And Social Inequality

1443 Words | 6 Pages

Social classes are a form of social stratification that refers to the existence of structured inequalities between individuals and groups in society. A social class is a group of people of comparable status, power and wealth which are usually classified as upper class, middle class, and lower class. For each class, there are some specific opportunities available that influence their social life. We can understand about the particularity of the chances through unequal distribution of these opportunities between individuals in social classes. In here belonging to a social class seems to be an obstacle for some individuals to obtain equal opportunity, unlike upper class people.

Read More

More about Skidmore Social Class

Related Topics

Open Document