'Mean Girls' at college - Paying for the Party

You're not done with high school when you go to college, according to a new study of student culture.

An in-depth look at the lives of young women who started college on the same floor of a large dorm at a middle-tier public university shows that the high school peer culture that divides students into homecoming queens, wannabes and nerds thrives in college, to the disadvantage of many.

"Parents and college administrators are naively optimistic about the atmosphere for freshman women in large party dorms," said Elizabeth Armstrong, a sociologist at the University of Michigan who conducted the study with colleague Laura Hamilton of the University of California at Merced.

Laura Hamilton

"The pressures these young women encounter make it very difficult for them to focus on academics.

For many, the experience is not a good one, and we found that it can affect the trajectories of their lives for many years to come."

Armstrong and Hamilton immersed themselves in the lives of 53 women as they moved into their dorm, following them for five years to see how their lives developed.

Although only about a third of the women started their college years as socialites or wannabes, all of their lives were shaped by the dominance of the party pathway at this school.

The party pathway was a set of social and academic arrangements—including a powerful Greek party scene and an array of easy majors—facilitating a primarily social experience.

Even those who entered determined to succeed academically were judged by their success at attracting the attention of high-status men and making it into sororities.

This culture is often referred to as "the college experience," Armstrong says, but in fact it's an experience that many students would do well to avoid—or to participate in only a bit.

In a new book based on the study, "Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality," Armstrong and Hamilton detail the experiences of the women, who had a great deal in common when they entered college but whose situations were dramatically different down the road.

College Degrees Challenge Students with Learning Difficulties

It may surprise you to learn that the U.S. ranks 14th among 37 developed nations when it comes to the percentage of young people holding college degrees. 

According to a study conducted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2011, only 56% of students in the U.S. that begin four-year colleges are likely to graduate.

If college presents insurmountable obstacles for almost half of all college students, you can imagine what that means for students with learning disabilities who already face challenges.

The postsecondary success rate for students with LD is half that of the general population; it’s estimated that only 28% receive a diploma.

According to the Institute for Higher Education Policy, the low graduation rate is largely attributable to educational missteps that begin in elementary school and continue through high school.

From kindergarten through 12th grade, students with LD experience “inadequate academic preparation when compared to their peers without disabilities; lower academic expectations; inferior pedagogy and services; and lack of full access to the core curriculum.”

Furthermore, with high school guidance counselors, teachers, and even parents focused on college admission rather than how to succeed when they get there, students with LD remain largely uneducated about the dramatically different culture they’re about to enter.

Even parents who graduated college themselves remain ignorant of the obstacles kids with learning disabilities encounter at the college level.

Read more of this article here

Ben Passmore displays his painting on Dyslexia

A STUDENT has told his personal experiences of Dyslexia through an exhibit.

Ben Passmore, 27, who is doing a part-time Foundation Diploma course at City College Brighton and Hove, has exhibited his painting at the college’s Visual Arts End of Year Show.

Ben, from St Leonards, said: “I came up with this idea of ‘visual dyslexia’ through the problems I have with written words.

“When I’m reading, I see words jump and sometimes overlap so it is very confusing and frustrating for me. With this exhibit, I’ve tried to do the same with visual information and create a visual image that is frustrating to the viewer. Being at City College has really helped me to explore these sorts of ideas and push my work further.”

The exhibition features final projects from more than 300 students who complete their courses this year.

City College’s Visual Arts End of Year Show is to the public during the college’s Open Day Summer Extravaganza tomorrow (Saturday), from 11am to 3pm at its Pelham Street Central Campus in Brighton. Admission is free.