Chance Me!: Competition Culture in Online College Admission Forums
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- It is no secret that the attainment of a college degree is one of the single most impactful choices in one’s life that has the ability to positively impact lifetime financial and social status. As the technological landscape of the workforce continues to develop exponentially and the demand for qualified employees who can meet and adapt to modern challenges—i.e. college graduates—increases, students are responding to this pressure, enrolling in record numbers year after year. While access to entry into and information about these institutions has been historically stratified by class, race, gender, and other identities, the proliferation of the participatory internet has given rise to a host of readily accessible resources and tools for all students. Discussions about college pursuit have historically been internal amongst schools, education professionals, and families; however, online admissions communities serve as sites where all members of the college application process co-engage with one another, shedding light on their interpretation of the qualities that warrant admission into institutions of higher education. While literature exists about the influences and motivations that allow students of all backgrounds to pursue college, this thesis, through the textual analysis of content submitted to popular college admissions online forums, aims to explicate the nature of admissions discussions in novel spaces online, against the backdrop of an intensely competitive culture. Despite their neutral and beneficial flagging, I find that messages within these platforms can contribute to and reinforce legacies of stratification and exclusion in education. Forum users and moderators can be more active in critically engaging with the messages circulated in these spaces and the systems they serve to benefit.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | [ca. November 2021 - March 2022] |
| Date modified | May 30, 2022; December 5, 2022 |
| Publication date | March 10, 2022; March 9, 2022 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Amuzie, Ocheze | |
|---|---|---|
| Thesis advisor | Rosa, Jonathan |
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2449-4087
(unverified)
|
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University |
Subjects
| Subject | Universities and colleges > Admission |
|---|---|
| Subject | Education, Higher |
| Subject | Electronic discussion groups |
| Subject | |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Amuzie, O. (2022). Chance Me!: Competition Culture in Online College Admission Forums. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/bx966pp0771
Collection
Stanford University, Program in Science, Technology and Society, Honors Theses
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