Pulled in or Pushed out? How Organizational Factors Shape the Social and Extra-Curricular Experiences of First-Generation Students

Imagine you’re a high-school guidance counselor, advising a promising senior. After receiving several acceptance letters, this first-generation, lower-income student wants to know: should I enroll in my state’s flagship university or an elite liberal arts college? Researchers know that the college experience is com-plex, composed of consequential experiences inside and outside the classroom. They also know that the college experience is linked to quantifiable outcomes in terms of employment and earnings, and more difficult to measure cultural and symbolic processes—those that mold a person’s identity and sense of place in the world. Moreover, researchers know that higher education is a site for both social mobility and social reproduction. So what would you tell this stu-dent? Assuming that financial aid equalizes the cost between these schools, should this student enroll in a small school with more elite peers, or the larger, ostensibly more diverse school?