Polished: College, Class, and the Burdens of Social Mobility

by Melissa Osborne

Overview

An illuminating look at the emotional costs of mobility faced by first-generation and low-income college students.
 
While college initiates a major transition in all students’ lives, low-income and first-generation students attending elite schools are often entering entirely new worlds. Amid the financial and academic challenges of adapting to college, their emotional lives, too, undergo a transformation. Surrounded by peers from different classes and cultural backgrounds, they are faced with an impossible choice: turn away from their former lives to blend in or stay true to themselves and remain on the outside.

An ethnography that draws on in-depth interviews with one hundred and fifty first-generation and low-income students across eighteen elite institutions, Polished uncovers the hidden consequences of the promise of social mobility in today’s educational landscape. Sociologist Melissa Osborne reveals how the very support designed to propel first-generation students forward can unexpectedly reshape their identities, often putting them at odds with their peers and families. Without direct institutional support, this emotional journey can lead to alienation, mental health challenges, poor academic outcomes, and difficult choices between upward mobility or maintaining authenticity and community. Whether you're an educator, advocate, or student, Polished provides a powerful perspective on the uncharted challenges of social mobility and personal identity during college.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226833040
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	05/01/2024
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	561,143
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Melissa Osborne is associate professor of sociology at Western Washington University.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1 College Frameworks, Fit, and Function
2 Great Expectations, Mismatched Beginnings
3 The Polishing Process
4 Unexpected Impacts and Contentious Conflicts
5 Making Sense of Social Mobility
Conclusion

Acknowledgments
Methodological Appendix
Notes
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

02/19/2024

Sociologist Osborne argues in her eye-opening debut study that programs at selective colleges meant to teach students from working-class backgrounds how to network, dress professionally, and otherwise acquire the social capital required to succeed in an elite environment, rather than helping students adjust to campus life, instead supercharge conflict with their families and friends back home. Drawing on interviews with 150 students at elite schools, Osborne describes harrowing scenes: while home on break, one student was accused of being a “fancy motherfucker” by his father, who claimed “the way he was wearing his hat, the ‘proper’ way he was talking, and the amount of gesturing he was doing with his hands” were signs of how college had changed him. Another student got into screaming matches with her mother, who called her a “stuck-up bitch,” before eventually breaking off contact. Such discord left many of the students feeling adrift (“I don’t really feel like I belong anywhere”) and at risk of forgetting “where they came from.” The extensive quotations are heartbreaking, allowing students to express in their own words the heavy toll that attending selective colleges exacts on their lives outside the classroom. It’s a searching inquiry into how elite colleges are failing their working-class students. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Polished provides an essential road map for how colleges can change the lives of first-generation students. Drawing on the compelling narratives of college students who have undergone what she calls a ‘polishing’ process, Osborne calls on institutions of higher learning to enable and support the extensive and profound identity work experienced by upwardly mobile students. Polished is a must-read for those concerned with social mobility and the emotional, social, and economic well-being of first-generation college students.” 

C.J. Pascoe

04/01/2024

The idea that a college education can be socioeconomically transformative has been proven over decades—so much so that most post-secondary institutions put significant resources into recruiting and supporting first-generation and lower-income students. Though these support systems seemingly cover every aspect of college life (particularly at selective private schools), students still experience challenges. Osborne (sociology, Western Washington Univ.) theorizes that these challenges may stem from the conflicts students face in navigating social mobility while maintaining who they are. With information gathered through in-depth interviews with 150 students from 18 institutions across the U.S., Osborne delves into the paradoxical nature of institutional support, illustrating how it provides invaluable resources and opportunities but can also catalyze profound shifts in students' personas, sometimes putting them at odds with their familial and cultural backgrounds. The book traces the evolution of student experiences and examines the initial hurdles they face, from acclimating to campus life to reconciling newfound privileges with familial ties and the complexities that arise from that. VERDICT A nuanced exploration of identity, culture, and the emotional impact of social mobility and college education. Will appeal to fans of Anthony Abraham Jack's The Privileged Poor and readers interested in post-secondary student success strategies.—Sara Holder

Library Journal

Meticulously researched and carefully argued. In Polished, Osborne deftly reveals the emotional and psychic complexity of educational social mobility in America. She also offers clear-eyed and tractable ways for schools and their personnel to assist students in navigating the positive life changes a college education can bring.

Mitchell Stevens