Armstrong Blog- Atoy Smith

This author argues that class is determined a lot by the life in and after college. Some factors are: class background, class projects, college pathways, college experiences, and class trajectory. Each factor also plays a part in your experience during college. For example, a lower class student might have more to juggle than a person of higher class. This student might have to work a part time job which cuts off their social life and have to do school work while the higher class student could have all the tuition taken care of and have time to party and enjoy college life. To support the author's argument they made a table to categorize each factor. Talking about class projects, class projects help form bonds with people in the same situations. Obviously, the people who are always studying and working would be together. While on the other hand everyone who always partying who does not worry about class as much would be together too. This social closure forces people to make connects with their selves which in hand can cause people to stay in the same class. Like Karen Pittelman and Resource Generation , people in upper-classes might have a higher GPA because they might not have to worry about supporting their family or self (Pittelman, 221-222). Once in college there are many ways it can be approached. One way is the party way, for upper class people, where the student has other priorities over academics because the college education is not necessary for their success. They would most likely live off their parents wealth and just come to college for the experiences. The Mobility and Professional pathways are usually taken by working to middle class citizens. Unfortunately, a lot of working and lower class students do not finish down these pathway because of outside problems usually with family and money. Not all struggling students are focused on work when they get to college, most came to party and socialize. These are called the socialites or wannabes. People try that way of living a lot but then realize that grades are more important so they switch over to strivers or achievers which is very academic heavy. People in the professional college life were not in the party life and were not in difficult economic circumstances. Just as you would guess the strivers were working long and hard for good health and to hopefully get a good financially stable job. Overall, I have noticed that there is there are predetermined classes in college. If there is a student coming from a upper to middle class home he/she could become a party socialite or a professional achiever, while anything at or below middle class is usually mobility striver. In these classes the people in the upper class or middle class stay the same or get higher while the lower class stays the same or usually falls because of economic problems. In conclusion, the college life is a heads up of the society we live in and what part of the society you are in; upper, middle, or low.