Sociology 1301: In-Class Assignment

Chapter 9: Social Stratification and Education

Yanni Nietcho

After reading the article “How We Are Ruining America” by David Brooks, answer the
following questions.

1. Name and describe two economic or cultural capitals that upper-middle classes can give their
children that help them “retain their privileged status.” (10 pts)

1) They can live in more cities like New York, Francisco, and Portland where there are good
housing and construction rules that keep the poor and less-educated away so they can
keep their status and so that the less-educated can’t become more educated and take their
status.

2) They use their money and invest into their kids which then cultivates them and gives
them an upper hand to the other kids of their age.

2. Name and describe two tasks that upper-middle classes do to “make sure the children of
other classes have limited chances to join their ranks.” (10 pts)

1) Cultural codes, they can create more cultural signifiers that would only be known to
people who grew up in that area and to be in that area you would have to be in the upper-
middle class making it so their status couldn’t be removed from them.

2) They top off their local public school budgets and they benefit from
legacy admissions rules, from admissions criteria that reward kids
who grow up with lots of enriching travel and from unpaid internships
that lead to jobs.

3. Name the book and the author that David Brooks draws his examples from for the answers to
Q2. (5 pts)
Dream Hoarders by Richard Reeves

4. What are legacy admissions? Do a quick research. Define what it is and explain how it
works. (10pts)
It is basically where a college normally gives admissions treatmeant/advantages to the children
of the alumni who when to that specific college.
 Sociology 1301: In-Class Assignment
Chapter 9: Social Stratification and Education

After reading the article “Legacy Admissions Offer an Advantage-And Not Just at Schools Like
Harvard” by Max Larkin and Mayowa Aina, answer the following questions.

5. According to this article, how many colleges (both public and private) in the U.S. consider
legacy status as a factor in admissions? (5 pts)

42% of private institutions and 6% of public institutions consider legacy status as a factor in
admissions.

6. How did the legacy admissions rule start? What was the main motive behind it? (10pts)

Jewish people and immigrants wanted to be accepted into universities like Harvard which then
made family histories invoked for the aspiring to be Harvard men. The motive behind it was to
help cement a strong bond between the university and its alumni.

7. Name at least three colleges, including one from Texas, that have stopped the legacy
admissions practice. (5 pts)
MIT, Caltech, and Texas A&M

8. Do you think the legacy admissions rule is a part of discrimination embedded in U.S.
culture? Why or why not? Explain your answer. (10 pts)
No, I do not. I just think that the schools want to keep a good relationship with the alumni who
used to go there. And by doing the legacy admissions they think that it will help as it will show
that they were grateful that the past family members who went there. It kind of like their way of
saying thank you to the alumni who went there.

9. Compare Affirmative Action (Read “Affirmative Action Fast Facts”) and Legacy
Admissions. How are the two different? If the legacy admissions policy is stopped, then do
you think the Affirmative Action policy should be stopped as well? Why or why not? (15 pts)

I mean I don’t think it should be stopped personally. Even to this day women and minorities are
still barely getting rights. As well as there are a lot of things that aren’t seen everyday that are a
part of this. What I mean is, socially nowadays still minorities/women still get treated differently.
Maybe not by the government but still definitely by society itself. So I think that it shouldn’t
stopped even though legacy admissions was stopped because that had much more money to do
 Sociology 1301: In-Class Assignment
Chapter 9: Social Stratification and Education

with it hat those minorities just didn’t have so it made it fair. The Affirmative Action policy
should not be dropped.

10. Using Symbolic Interactionism, explain David Brooks’ statement “I’ve come to think the
structural barriers he emphasizes are less important than the informal social barriers that
segregate the lower 80 percent.” Explain “the informal social barriers” using his example
and Elizabeth Currid-Halkett’s arguments in her book “The Sum of Small Things.” Apply
the Symbolic Interactionism perspectives on how “the informal social barriers” play a
significant role in SES mobility in the U.S. social stratification. (20 pts)

Brooke thinks that informal social barriers play a bigger part than the structural barriers. Those
informal social barriers he talks about could be norms, unwritten rules, and cultural practices that
make up one’s society. So he believes that those things are more important than structural
barriers, those being the law/government because those things happen on a daily basis. In
Halkett’s book, she talks about the upper-middle class separate themselves from the lower clases
through their consumption. This being the type of neighborhoods they live in, the schools that
they go to, and the cultural activities that they do which makes a separation between them and
the lower groups of the social ranks. Linking this to Symbolic Interactionalism, certain things
and symbols attach to different stuff which creates those sociological separations and boundaries.
For example, attending a high-end elite school or being able to participate in certain extra-
curricular activities only apply to the upper-middle class so the lower end classes of society will
not be able to be a part of it and it will make them feel left out and make it hard for them to get
access to those same opportunities. Also that people make assumptions about how people talk,
dress, walk etc. So if some specific type of walk or way of communication is seen as a lower
class thing, the people who do those things might get discriminated on a daily basis in society
and might affect the potential opportunities they would’ve had in life had they not done those
things.