Why College Is Worth It

Abstract

Chapter 3 addresses the ways that social class, economic resources, and family backgrounds affect students’ experiences of college. Students learn about the value of college: that college is important to earn a degree for specific skills and credentials, while it also teaches the “rules of the game,” referred to in scholarship as acquiring cultural capital. This chapter also addresses how students’ social class backgrounds affect how easy, hard, or different from high school they find the college experience to be, and how these experiences can shape the kinds of skills and talents that students gravitate to and build during college.