Striving for Status

Abstract

Maximizing college summer breaks for career preparation and prestige accumulation is an established routine for elite undergraduates in the United States. Social reproduction, meritocracy, and changes to the world of work increasingly complicate this issue. Yet despite this additional burden, there is little research into the costs and benefits of participation and limited comprehension of how and why elite undergraduates internalize norms around summer breaks. This study fills that gap by introducing the High Prestige Summer Experience Model, a framework for understanding this decision-making process. Using interviews with 13 undergraduates and recent alumni from an Ivy League university, this grounded theory study presents the five phases of summer planning and participation. Students refine decisions at each stage by measuring possible opportunities against three mental measurements (Threshold of Acceptability, Narrative Currency Value, and Summer Prestige Ranking). The norms and beliefs inculcated through peer culture influence this paradigm through which they view their college summers. Underlying this process are the mediating factors that nudge and shape each particular student’s decisions: personal context; campus context; and societal context. Participants reported that summer experiences play an important role in peer positioning. They carry a narrative currency on campus and the ability to frame their experiences buys social acceptance for undergraduates. Summer experiences allow students to explore jobs in ways not normally available during term-time study, provide opportunities for personal development and growth, and equip them for their post-graduate elite status through capital accumulation. Participants noted that significant emotional and social consequences flow from actions in the summer experience process while simultaneously questioning its value to them in the long term. The findings of an additional comparison group of participants at a different selective campus indicate that this trend toward high prestige summer experiences is being normalized at lower rungs on the institutional prestige ladder as well.