The College Application Essay Mediating Inequality Along the Path to Higher Education

142 Pages·2017·1.02 MB·English

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Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center
5-2018
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Ralitsa S. Todorova
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
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THE COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY MEDIATING INEQUALITY ALONG THE PATH
TO HIGHER EDUCATION
by
RALITSA TODOROVA

A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Psychology in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York

2018
THE COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY ii

© 2018
RALITSA TODOROVA
All Rights Reserved
THE COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY iii

The College Application Essay Mediating Inequality Along the
Path to Higher Education
by
Ralitsa Todorova

This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in
Psychology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy.

_Dr. Colette Daiute______________________

__________________ ______________________________________
Date Chair of Examining Committee

_Dr. Richard Bodnar_____________________

__________________ ______________________________________
Date Executive Officer

Dr. Juan Battle_____________________________________________
Dr. Cheryl Smith___________________________________________
Dr. Nancy Budwig__________________________________________
Dr. Martin Ruck____________________________________________
Supervisory Committee

THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
THE COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY iv

ABSTRACT

The College Application Essay Mediating Inequality Along the Path to Higher Education
by
Ralitsa Todorova
Advisor: Dr. Colette Daiute

This dissertation examines inequality and access in the college admissions process and, in
particular, via the college application essay. With a research design and analysis sampling
documents from multiple stakeholders in the college admissions process, this research considers
how students with diverse histories of preparation for higher education interact with actors
relevant to the admissions process in their college admissions essays. This research project
ultimately asks how the college essay process (its importance, the preparation, and ultimate
writing) mediates inequality in admission to higher education. Essays were collected from
students at one large public university and one small private liberal arts university. These were
analyzed alongside university admissions requirements and college preparatory agency
information. Analyses showed that all student essays interacted with the institutional
expectations and presented an awareness of the need to write for their audience. Students
addressed their audience more and less directly, by conveying challenges they overcame and
describing the personal growth that came from those challenges. Differences in essays by
students across public and private universities emerged in how the students approached
challenges and development. For example, first-generation college students and those who did
not participate in college preparatory activities devoted more words to describing the challenge
itself, whereas their non-first-generation peers and those that were exposed to college
preparatory work devoted more attention to exploring the development of their passions. This
THE COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY v

study sheds light on how students use the college essay process to negotiate their understanding
of higher education and their potential place in it, in relation to numerous messages they have
received. That said, barriers to higher education access remain. The findings can help researchers
consider innovative designs for studying inequality and for considering practices of educators,
policy makers, and families to better understand the college process.
THE COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY vi

Acknowledgements
It is with deep gratitude that I’d like to thank the following people, without whom this project
and its completion would not have been possible:
Colette Daiute, for her constant engagement, ideas, questions, navigation, encouragement, and
dice rolling over the past six years.
Cheryl Smith, for her amazing and thoughtful insights and Juan Battle for his deep and
challenging questions and guidance.
Martin Ruck and Nancy Budwig, for joining me on this journey and bringing their invaluable
perspectives.
My GC cohort, who inspire me every day and make this work worth it.
My friends outside of CUNY, who have shown me what it really means to be a friend.
Brian, for his calmness, strength, and unwavering support.
My parents and sister. There are no words for how much I appreciate and adore you.
THE COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY vii

Table of Contents
Chapter One: Background Introduction and Overview of the Project ................................... 1
The Importance of a College Degree .......................................................................................... 3
Theoretical Foundations .............................................................................................................. 5
Available Resources for Applying to College and Navigating the Admissions Process ............ 9
The College Essay Requirements .............................................................................................. 11
The College Essay Genre .......................................................................................................... 16
Standard Academic English ...................................................................................................... 18
Programs Attempting to Bridge the Gap ................................................................................... 21
Research Aims and Questions ................................................................................................... 23
Significance ............................................................................................................................... 24
Chapter Two: The Research Design to Discover Stakeholders’ Diverse Expressions ......... 27
The Data from Multiple Stakeholders ....................................................................................... 27
Data Collection Process ............................................................................................................ 32
Analytic Approach .................................................................................................................... 33
Chapter Three: Institutions and Students in Interaction ....................................................... 39
The Values Expressed through Institutional Documents .......................................................... 40
Student College Essays ............................................................................................................. 44
Eight Major Value Expressions Evident among Stakeholders.................................................. 46
Chapter Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 55
THE COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY viii

Chapter Four: Students Mediate the Meaning of College through the College Essay ......... 58
Similarities and Differences in the Values Students Expressed ................................................ 67
Value Patterns Between the Essays from the Two Universities ............................................... 73
Value Expressions Along Demographic Groups ...................................................................... 76
A Closer Consideration of Students’ Expressions of Challenges and Development ................ 81
Chapter Summary ...................................................................................................................... 88
Chapter Five: The Significance of the College Audience in Students’ Expressions ............. 93
Significance Analysis ................................................................................................................ 93
Evaluative Devices in the College Essays................................................................................. 95
How Causal Connectors and Hedges are Used Between Universities ...................................... 99
Psychological States and Qualifiers as Evaluative Devices Used by All ............................... 103
Chapter Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 107
Chapter Six: Discussion and Implications .............................................................................. 110
Revisiting the Expressions in the Data .................................................................................... 112
Implications for Research and Practice ................................................................................... 119
Inequality in Access to College ............................................................................................... 124
Concluding Thoughts .............................................................................................................. 126
References .................................................................................................................................. 127
THE COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY ix

List of Tables
Table 1: Institutional documents used in the study ....................................................................... 28
Table 2: Participant demographics ............................................................................................... 31
Table 3: Demographics by University (n) .................................................................................... 31
Table 4: How each research question will be addressed through the data ................................... 38
Table 5: Percent (%) of t-units per major value emphasized across all stakeholders ................... 46
Table 6: Percent (%) of t-units per major value within each institutional stakeholders ............... 48
Table 7: Percent (%) of t-units per major values emphasized across all stakeholders ................. 52
Table 8: Percent (%) of t-units of major values emphasized in student essays by university ...... 68
Table 9: Values enacted by students at each university, in order of prominence ......................... 74
Table 10: Percent (%) of t-units of major values emphasized in student essays by demographics
....................................................................................................................................................... 77
Table 11: Percent (%) of related values by t-unit as expressed in college essays SLAU and LPU
students ......................................................................................................................................... 81
Table 12: Descriptive table of the uses of evaluative devices in the student essays .................... 95
Table 13: Frequency and percentages of evaluative devices by students at each university ........ 99