Paying For The Party Summary

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Introduction
Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality, is a book constructed on thorough ethnographic research and social science. It primarily targets universities and secondary education – to be specific, how female college students handle the struggles they face in their first years at a major university, as well as the struggles they face when they finally do graduate. Authors Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton come to the conclusion that many college campuses are doing an inadequate job of helping their students be successful while in school, and they analyze all of the factors that play a role in their success, or lack thereof. The main concept of the book is that the university essentially enables a party pathway through …show more content…

These pathways include the Mobility Pathway, the Professional Pathway, and the Party Pathway. While these labels are very generic, they still help to explain a lot about the students’ goals and expectations as they first enter the college scene. The Mobility Pathway provides vocational training to anyone who is willing to work hard to get it. These students are typically less privileged so they rely on their education to find a job rather than their families. These students are trying to use college as a way to build their careers and rise in socio-economic class. The Professional Pathway is very competitive when it comes to getting into top programs, internships, and financial awards. These students can come from just about any background, but they see their undergraduate coursework as the first step in higher education. They plan on pursuing a career in law or medicine where additional schooling is required. There is very little room for error with this pathway so many students are weeded out in the beginning. The Party Pathway is comprised mostly of affluent students and do not cost the school very much money as they do not require financial assistance. They tend to choose “easy majors” (which surprisingly are supported by the school) so they can focus on their social life more than academics. Regardless of what major they choose, they rely on …show more content…

This may have been due to the large size of the school, but also seems somewhat strategized: “The size and diversity of student bodies at MU and similar schools make [creating a unified learning community] a challenge. We did not observe an effort on the part of MU to do so.” (228) This does not come as a huge surprise, but it does play a role in the future these women have. The women who succeeded were well connected with their own specific social group, rather than to the whole. The women who did not succeed often said that they felt lonely and distant from groups on campus. They seemed to be unaware of the groups that existed on campus and may have been the perfect fit for them.
Speaking in terms of success, just how well did the women in the study do? A few did well and some of the partiers even landed themselves a good job, even though their education might not have had much to do with it. The majority of the professional pathway women were able to earn the degrees they wanted—although not always the employment they had envisioned. And a small number of the “mobility” students completed their studies at IU and found fairly good

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