You all might recall from Introduction to Sociology courses that Max Weber introduced the term “life chances” to describe probable outcomes, given certain factors, that an individual’s life will turn out a certain way. According to this theory, life chances are positively correlated with one’s socioeconomic status.
I want to suggest now that we think about “life chances” and education, particularly in light of the so called “choices” that students are assumed to make about which university they will attend. An article published in Inside Higher Education looks at this topic and reports the following. Ellen Wexler writes:
If only tuition were lower, and high school students were armed with better data. That’s the idea that has guided the policy discussion about college access and affordability: to make better enrollment decisions, the story goes, students need money and information. But that narrative misses an important point about how students make decisions: for many students, where they go to college depends largely on where they live, according to a study commissioned by the American Council on Education.
The majority of incoming freshmen attending public four-year colleges and universities enroll within 50 miles of their home, the study found. And the farther students live from any particular college, the less likely they are to enroll.
“The zip code that a child is born into oftentimes determines their life chances,” said Nick Hillman, an author of the study and assistant professor of education leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “Place matters because it reinforces existing inequalities.”
At public four-year colleges, the median distance students live from home is 18 miles. That number is 46 miles for private nonprofit four-year colleges, and only eight miles at public two-year colleges.
But when it comes to college choice, Hillman thinks geography is overlooked. Policy makers focus too much on expanding students’ awareness of their possible choices, he said, without realizing that students’ options are already limited.
The study points to tools like the College Scorecard, which are intended to help students make informed, thoughtful decisions about where to enroll. But if a student needs to stay close to her family, what will she gain by learning that the perfect institution is hundreds of miles away?
“The conversation pretty much ends with, ‘Hey, get better information in the hands of students,’” Hillman said. “But the way that prospective students use information is very different depending on what kinds of students you’re looking at.”
The crux of the problem is a misalignment of expectations: from policy makers’ perspective, students would attend college at whatever institution is best for them. But for some students, location is nonnegotiable — and often, that means their options are dramatically limited.
For upper-class students, having more information might help; they have the flexibility to travel, and they can afford to shop around. But it isn’t enough for working-class students, who may need to choose from the options available nearby.
“Most of the conversations today overlooks the working-class student and prioritizes the upper-class student,” Hillman said. “It’s just really frustrating from the academic side — and even more frustrating from a policy angle.”
Education Deserts
And for working-class students who want to stay close to home, what happens when there aren’t any colleges nearby? No matter how well-informed these students are, they don’t end up with many options.
These are students who live in what the study calls “education deserts.” An area qualifies as an education desert if there aren’t any colleges at all, or if one community college is the only broad-access public institution nearby.
An education desert can include private and public colleges that are particularly selective. That’s because local residents may not be accepted into those colleges — which means they have even fewer options. And if there’s only one community college within commuting distance, that’s likely where those residents will end up.
The dark shaded areas in this grahic represent “Education Deserts” for student commuters.
“The role of community colleges is paramount,” said Lorelle Espinosa, assistant vice president at ACE’s Center for Policy Research and Strategy. “We need to be thinking about the institutions that exist in these places and making sure they are equipped to serve students.”
Policy makers need to focus on solutions that will help all students, she added, not just those with the freedom to travel.
Most of the country’s education deserts are in the Midwest and Great Plains states, the study found. Community colleges enroll over half of students who live in education deserts, while private institutions account for less than 15 percent of education desert enrollments.
“Every state should have a good inventory of their deserts,” Hillman said. “They should know exactly what colleges are operating in these areas, to what extent they’re serving their communities.”
And after that, Hillman thinks policy makers should look at how they fund their colleges in education deserts, perhaps switching from performance-based models to equity-based models. In areas where opportunity is slim, he said, policy makers need to focus on building up the colleges that serve their communities.
Hillman’s family lives in northern Indiana, where only a few broad-access public colleges serve large numbers of students. But not all policy makers have lived in an area where opportunities are so slim. And that, Hillman said, is why they overlook geography: many of them traveled far from home to attend college, and many of their children have done the same.
“Policy makers are not in tune with the reality of how working-class families make decisions,” he said.
Sources
“Geography Matters,” by Ellen Wexler.
Downloaded from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/03/when-students-enroll-college-geography-matters-more-policy-makers-think?utm_content=buffer83574&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=IHEbuffer Last accessed Feb 3, 2016.
Discussion Questions
How much did geography factor into your decision of what college to attend? Did you choose a school that offered a particular professional or social environment, one the had a “best in class” program, or simply a school that was commuting distance from your neighborhood?
If you chose a local school, did ever enter into your thought process that you might want to attend a non-local school. If so, what prevented you from attending a non-local school?
When I graduated from high school I was well prepared as to what college I wanted to attend. I had great counselors as well as great teacher. I also had a mentor who was very knowledgeable about the school system, programs that they offer. She helped me narrow my choices as to what I wanted to study. I always wanted to go out of state such as Binghamton University that was when I decided to applied. Binghamton is a great university with a beautiful campus and with good academy programs. I applied and got accepted to the university. However, my mother was extremely attached and didn’t seem to be happy to let me go. This is when the real problem began I decided to then stay in state. The school systems in NJ aren’t the greatest! The programs they offer and the school itself wasn’t something I desired for me. I had one very close to my house however, I knew from the very beginning it wasn’t the school I wanted to go. I then decided to start applying to in state college such as Brooklyn College, Lehman College and Hunter College. After getting accepted to all 3 colleges and after thoroughly considering at each individual college and their programs, the campus I decided to go to Hunter.
Hunter College was about 2 hours away from where I used to live. The Geography is some way factored into my decision. Hunter was much closer than the other two colleges. Hunter is right in the city and just few stops from where I had to take the bus to go back to NJ. Hunter also has a good psychology program and a very competitive master program in social work!
Yes, I can say I based my decision on the particular professional and social environment and the best in class I would say. There is nothing like going to a school and knowing after you graduate and have your college degree offers would be blowing you up just because you graduated from there. Geography wise it wasn’t the best choice due to being so far but compare to my choices where I lived I think I made the right decision.
New York City is not a great sample to take when considering what school we wish to attend. I think for a number of us, especially for me there was a sense of “I’m in New York, people flock to come to school here, why would I go live in some college town upstate or out of state? For what?” The other sentiment that prevailed in my decision was an understanding that I would at some point pursue a degree higher than my Bachelors, and CUNY seemed like a fine and affordable system that would serve to get me into enough law schools for which I would then be more choosy.
But that was my thought process as a wide-eyed senior. I’ve since changed, or at least put on halt my plans to apply to law schools. But when applying to colleges, I didn’t consider any out of state options, even in applying to NYU, i did mostly to see if I would actually get in. I knew financially, I would never be able to attend.
My sister had gone to a CUNY, as did my cousin. And my parents, immigrants from Russia, barely understood and to some extend still don’t understand, how universities work in America so the decision of where to go and what to pursue was largely on me and asking the right questions. This varies greatly from my boyfriend. His parents have gone through the education system in America and both graduated Ivy league schools. The differences are evident: I didn’t do that much research, I didn’t visit campuses for schools and then systematically cross off the ones that just wouldn’t work, and I didn’t have as clear of an idea of what I wanted to major, which meant a very loose structure in deciding what schools had the best programs for x,y or z majors. The thought process was keep it general, more options the better. I just thought I would figure it out as I went alone.
I choose Hunter, which is about an hour and a half out from where I live. Geography in some way factored into the decision. I knew I didn’t want to go to say, Brooklyn College. It’s a fine school but I didn’t want to go to college with everyone I went to high school with, and I think a lot of people had the same “get out but don’t run away” mentality. Everyone that I knew, that had gone away, is back home now, and describe it as a step backwards since they are working the same jobs they worked on summer breaks, with mounts of debt, and a piece of paper which can’t get them a job in their field or that’s what they say anyway. So I don’t really regret my decision, though I do recognize that I should’ve maybe taken a more active role in choosing colleges.
I have friends in Staten Island though, which is about a 15min drive from me, who have about 3 decent options for school. Not good, just decent. And for them, I have heard or can assume that Geography does matter a great deal.
Instead of the gov. spending money on dumb things i don’t understand why cant they build more accredited schools and secure the citizens of america’s future maybe there wouldn’t be what they call seem to call “usless lives” doing drugs in half the country if we had more productivity and invested more on education, it seems like the gov. is setting the country up to fail. i felt like i didn’t have many options to choose from for my college career because opinions from out of state college students ( students from Georgia Universities and southern Universities) said the QUALITY of education is better. public schools in NYC are over crowded and it just seems like really basic education. all you do is book work and more book work and exam after exam. i don’t believe that the zip code would determine your future i really believe its the quality of education you receive. what can you benefit from that school and how is it unique to your career needs, what does the school offer to make it stand out to you. i wanted to go to school out of NYS but i couldn’t afford too. its not even about the quality of education anymore its more about the proximity of the school and what it costs. and if there’s no school close to home than your destined to be uneducated and be a statistic in the country.
When I graduated from high school my parents were in the American military in the state of Texas. We lived in the “border town” of El Paso. The most convenient and economically doable path for higher education was to stay living with ones parents and attend the local community college and then to transfer to the local four-year university. When I transferred from the community college I went to The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) for four years, though I did not earn a degree. I later would come to live in NYC and each time I would go on interviews for administrative type jobs with big corporations there was snickering to downright laughing at where I went to school by these executives. These were white business men, which I would come to know all graduated from schools such as of Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Brown, etc. and all made over $200K per year + bonuses and were all under 50 years old.
I would mostly get the jobs that I was interviewing for but it never ceased to amaze me how men (the women were less scoffingly demonstrative, though it was always one of their question: “El Paso, TX? Why UTEP”?) who had access to such opportunities would dare say such putdowns about someone coming to interview with them for a subordinate-type of position such as an administrative assistant. Did they imagine that they would be interviewing a Harvard graduate for an administrative assistant job? Really?! What was the purpose of the scoffing at where I attended the university. It is just beyond me how insensitive and blind some people can be about life, societal structures and privilege as a whole. I would explain to them that it was due to the location where my parents were living once I graduated high school. I also learned to say that it was my university of choice, since I am fluent in Spanish and they have a thriving Chicano’s Studies department, which they did, by the way. But it was all blah, blah, blah all the while I felt the burn….
In many ways I am glad that I live in NYC (Brooklyn) because as so many of my classmates have written on their comments to this topic in question, truly, the decision to attend Hunter College depends almost entirely on where we reside due to the reality of proximity, economic and transportation ease as well as due to the diversity of the overall student body.
It’s really not fair that people who happen to live in “Educational Deserts” have to sacrifice so much in order to even consider going to college. And even if they do, what kind of opportunities are available to them living so removed from institutions of higher education? They might be seen just like I was seen and scoffed at all those years in corporate America during job interviews. It’s almost a no win situation for the poor and working class when they aspire to move beyond the social structure system in place.
Geography factor had a huge influence foe me to choose the college. I immigrated to America three years ago, and the first place where I lived was New York because my mother was here. I decided to go to college once I been here. Because of the language issue, I only could get in the community college, such as BMCC, QCC and LAGCC. Finally, I went to LAGCC because it was nearby my house which only take half hour to be there. Once I graduated from LAGCC, I registered the Hunter College. One of reason was that Hunter College was a really nice college because of the specialization education, excellent academic achievement and academic freedom. But the most important reason was Hunter College was not far away from my home. Even though I really wanted to attend to Stony Brook University, I gave up.
New York is a really nice place to get high education because there are many of nice colleges and universities. For upper class students, they are more likely to attend in private university because their economic foundation can support them to travel everywhere. Most of work class students would like to choose the college or university which are nearby their house because of the economic. Even though I chose Hunter College to continue my education, I had even think about to attend a college or university which were located in another city, such as Boston, Washington DC and some western cities. But I couldn’t attend because of my economic issue. My family belongs to work class which means we don’t have enough money to support me move to another place to get education. If I attended a non-local college, I had to pay rent, buy everything which support to daily lives, even buy car because most of place they don’t have convenient transportation. If I chose stay at New York, I could live with my parents, and I could take convenient bus or subways to go everywhere. New York City was not an “Education deserts” place. I didn’t need to move to another city to get education because New York could offer many different colleges and university to everyone. Geography factor really impact people’s education.
Even before I came to reside in New York, I knew that I would not go to school in any other places than the city for many reasons.All my parents and relatives are in NYC, as an immigrant it made more sense to me to be around parents and family members who settled before me which gave me the possibility to have a roof on my head without the worry of paying the rent as I just arrived. I also took into consideration factors such as the affordability of the tuition within the CUNY system, and the advantage of having the public transportation practically at my door.Additionally, I wanted to be part of a diverse community, so that I would not feel isolated (CUNY offers this diversity). This is to say that geography played an important role in my college choice.
As a native New Yorker, having not been too fortunate with the quality of public primary and secondary education that I had access to within New York City, I must say that my experiences with the City University of New York system has been contrary. Initially after high school, I knew that I would attend a community college as my academic background was not at all exceptional. However, my experiences are exemplary of the successful trajectory that many students can follow within a public higher education system, considering that I began my studies at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and have successfully continued, now a senior student at Hunter College.
After having completed my Associate’s degree at BMCC, I had just barely considered applying to a senior college outside of the CUNY system, but I wasn’t too confident in my academic performance yet, and was discouraged by the higher costs of many schools outside of this system. It also occurred to me that relocating to a school outside of my hometown would be all the more expensive and arduous an experience, because of the needed living arrangements. I decided that Hunter was not just the most practical choice considering the close proximity, the affordability and my familiarity with New York’s public higher education system, but I am also proud to support an exceptional public university, as I feel that such an integral system in our country faces many challenges and disinvestment, and if it weren’t for the availability of these schools, so many would be left without the opportunity to advance their academic studies.
Looking forward now as I am set to graduate Hunter, I am much more hopeful and confident in my future studies. I intent to apply to a graduate program in Urban Planning, and am proud to say that I have made tremendous strides in my academic performance and background. Becoming all the more familiar with occurrences in which people I knew may have been offered full scholarships into certain schools as qualified diversity candidates, I am looking forward to applying to some of the top schools in the field of urban planning. These include Columbia University, the University of California Berkeley and Cornell University. I do understand that two of these options would require me to relocate, but at this point, I am looking forward to this opportunity. I must say though that my choice in school is strongly dependent on the financial aid that is made available to me. If I do not receive sufficient aid, then I will consider returning to Hunter College.
Geography factor had a huge impact into my decision of what college I wanted to attend. I am a new Yorker so it was important for me to choose a college located in New York because I wanted to pay lower college tuition for in-state students. Also, it was important for me to attend the CUNY colleges because I think they are more affordable. In addition , I didn’t want to use any student loan so I choice a CUNY school. I choice Hunter because my brother went to the same school and graduated with his bachelor. He had highly recommended that I should attend Hunter College because he had received a great education.
Moreover , it was also very important for me to attend a school in the city because it is easier in terms of commute for me. I can also save money since I still live with my parents and I don’t have to pay rent.
Personally, geography did have an impact on where I decided to go to college. I live on Long Island and attended community college there. When the time came to transfer I began looking at SUNY colleges, particularly in upstate NY. I got accepted to SUNY New Paltz and went to an open house just to get more information on the school. I quickly became discouraged when I had to think about the living situation and not owning a car. I’m the first person in my immediate family to attend college and would have been paying for everything on my own. Although I was eligible for financial aid, I worried about getting a job, travel, and acquiring student loans for books and on/off campus living. I decided that Hunter was the best option. While attending Hunter I could still keep my job on Long Island, live at home, and take public transportation. There are so many factors that come in to deciding which college to attend and I imagine money is the biggest factor.
It worries me to read things such as “the zip code a child is born into decides their life chances” Almost as if to say be careful of every little decisions you ever make in your life because it will drastically effect future generations to come. Rather than thinking that you can make anything of your self no matter the circumstances we now live in a work where you are only a product of your environment and nothing more. I still strongly believe the original statement that you can overcome any situation you are placed in but then when I think about the reasons behind all of my life decisions it makes me question myself.
My initial reason for picking a school like Hunter was of course because of its academic reputation and because of the programs it had to offer, but if it wasn’t for the location as well I might not have made the same decision. Living in New York means that you have access to a lot of institutions with in a very short distance from your home. Going away for school was not an option for me and my family so it makes me think, what would I have done had I lived somewhere where only one school was close enough and I didn’t have any other options that were in my state? I’d be forced to go to that school going into a program that I never really planned on because that’s all that the school had to offer and then I’d have a degree in something of very little interest to me which would result in difficulties finding work after school. Being born in an “Education Desert” could cause someone to have a snowball effect of problems in the future.
In my case geography was a huge factor. I wanted to be within a half hour from my child’s school, family, shopping, home and work. I wanted to attend Hunter because it has an excellent academic reputation. Hunter has been compared to many local Ivy League schools at an affordable price. Within the CUNY system Hunter is also compare to be top notch. The school has a variety of classes in different areas. Most of all the student body is diverse.
Attending a non-local school was not an option for me. It is comes down to gender, race and class for me. I wanted to be with students who spoke a common language and where I was accepted. It also depended upon would it be an urban or suburban neighborhood, what allocated social services did the community had, how diverse the school is. Most of all public transportation would have to be accounted. Most people cannot afford to buy a car. Having a car is a luxury. There are many other reasons why I chose to stay in the New York oppose to any other city. What it comes down to is freedom of choice and opportunity.