NSF Org:	SES Divn Of Social and Economic Sciences
Recipient:	PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE
Initial Amendment Date:	March 10, 2017
Latest Amendment Date:	March 10, 2017
Award Number:	1702995
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Toby Parcel SES  Divn Of Social and Economic Sciences SBE  Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie
Start Date:	July 1, 2017
End Date:	June 30, 2018 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$11,981.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$11,981.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2017 = $11,981.00
History of Investigator:	Mary Waters (Principal Investigator) mcw@wjh.harvard.edu Thomas Wooten (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	Harvard University 1033 MASSACHUSETTS AVE STE 3 CAMBRIDGE MA  US  02138-5366 (617)495-5501
Sponsor Congressional District:	05
Primary Place of Performance:	Harvard University, Dept. of Sociology 33 Kirkland St Cambridge MA  US  02138-2044
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	05
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	LN53LCFJFL45
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	Sociology
Primary Program Source:	01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	1331, 9179
Program Element Code(s):	133100
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.075

ABSTRACT

This study examines the experiences of low-income Americans who enroll in college, identifying reasons so many of them drop out. Most low-income Americans now enroll in college, but only 11% earn a bachelor's degree within six years. The project documents the many challenges low-income college students face and observes how they deal with these challenges. This research will provide new insights for sociology on why the American Dream can be so elusive. It will also identify ways that high schools, colleges, and federally funded financial aid programs can better support low-income students.

The researcher is spending two years with a small group of students from New Orleans, following them through their senior year of high school and their freshman year of college. As an ethnography of attempted upward mobility focused on the period of the life course when upwardly mobile trajectories are most often derailed, this study will document the most proximate causes of class reproduction for low-income Americans. The study asks two questions: First, what challenges do low-income students face during the transition to college, both in school and out of school, that affect their academic progress? Second, how do students cope with these challenges and make sense of them? Answers to these questions will have important implications for the sociological study of poverty, higher education, and class reproduction. Previous ethnographic work on poverty in America focuses primarily on how low-income people survive poverty and make meaning within it, so this new focus on the experience of trying to escape poverty could shed light on why so few succeed. Moreover, qualitative sociology research to date on the experiences of low-income college students has focused almost exclusively on the small portion of these students who attend selective residential colleges. By studying the experiences of students who live at home while attending community colleges and lower-tier public four-year colleges, this study will provide a needed glimpse of the contexts in which upward mobility most often falters.

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

This grant helped me to complete two years of ethnographic fieldwork in New Orleans to study the transition to college for young men from low-income families. In generations past, young people hoping to escape poverty often saw their hopes dashed when they failed to graduate high school. Now, most young Americans from low-income families finish high school and enroll in college, but college is where the dream dies. Just 11% of young people from families in the bottom fifth of the income distribution who enroll in college go on to earn a B.A. within six years. By following eight young men as they finished high school and started college, I learned up close about many of the difficulties they encounter along the way. My main finding surprised me. Previous research about reasons young people struggle to escape poverty often focuses on why they give up—one gets the impression that lack of ambition is the problem and the thing that sociolgy must try to explain. I saw exactly the opposite. Time and again, the young men I spent time with had their academic progress derailed because they tried to do too much. Eager to secure brighter futures but also to improve immediate life circumstances for themselves and their families, they enrolled full time in classes while also doing their best to earn money. In almost every case, they bit off more than they could chew, and when push came to shove, work took priority over school. In my dissertation, I tell the stories of these eight men, describing the cruelly paradoxical process by which too much ambition can hinder attempts to escape from poverty. 

Last Modified: 08/02/2018
Modified by: Thomas Wooten

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