Self and Society

PART ONE: Read “Getting In” by Malcolm Gladwell (Gladwell_Getting In.docx). According to Gladwell, how do college admissions work at an elite university like Harvard? How is this related to social power and social status? (1 paragraph)
Next, look at the Harvard Admissions brochure. (Harvard Admissions 2016-2017.pdf) What type of person are they recruiting? How does Harvard’s marketing match or contradict what Gladwell claims goes on behind the scenes? (1 paragraph)
Choose a university that is not in the Ivy League and look at their website. What type of person are they recruiting? Compare and contrast that school’s online admissions and recruitment materials, selectivity/acceptance %, and incoming class demographics to Harvard. (1 paragraph)
Does it matter where someone goes to college? Why or why not? (1 paragraph)
PART TWO: Reflect on and analyze your educational experience at Florida Atlantic University.
How did your social status(es) influence your decision to attend FAU? How did your family’s socioeconomic background affect your educational aspirations and experiences prior to and during college? How did the time (the historical moment) and place of your birth and your social context shape your life path so that you are now attending FAU? (1-2 paragraphs)
Analyze how your identities (particularly your social class, race/ethnicity, gender) are connected to your educational experience. Each identity may be separate and distinct or they may be interconnected. Use at least five specific examples from your own life of emotions, strategies, behaviors, and experiences to explain how your identities have impacted your time at college. Then, identify and contrast emotions, strategies, or experiences of people at college who come from backgrounds different from yours. (5 paragraphs)
You can approach this analysis however you want. Some suggestions include:
How do you view your professors, your classmates, the curriculum, activities, testing, etc.? Why?
How do others view you? Why?
How does your identity affect your view of education?
How does your identity affect the ways in which you learn?