My mother is currently going back to school to get her BA. Recently she and I have been having wonderful conversations about our experiences as students in two very different educational settings at very different periods in our lives: I enrolled at Haverford College right after high school, and she enrolling at New York City Technical College after raising 5 kids, with a newborn in the middle of her career. Of course there are many different kinds of schools and nothing is ever black-white, however in our experiences as students and full time employees we’ve seen some trends. Below are some of the key differences we have noticed:

Columbia University in New York City

The role and value of real world experience: I remember sitting in a class with a bunch of other 17 and 18 year olds who had left home for the first time. In many classes the professors’ way of getting us experience was to have us do volunteer work or internships. The goal was to combine book learning and hands-on learning in a meaningful way. This is in stark contrast my mom’s classes which not only have “traditional” students but also older students, parents, and professionals mid career. My mother says that the students have too much experience, so much so that it is hard for them to understand anything that doesn’t match with what they’ve been through. Experience in this case is a barrier to classroom learning whereas when I was a student it was built upon as a tool to enhance classroom learning.

A sense of entitlement versus hard work: I’m not exaggerating when I say my alma mater threw money at us to do things. Start a club, travel abroad, volunteer…you name it, there was money for it. Of course, this lent itself to a sense of entitlement among students. Once I started working and dealing with volunteers, many of my supervisors and other coordinators lamented working with students from elite schools because not only did they expect everything to be handed to them but also they thought they knew everything, not paying attention the culture of the organization and the people they served. On the other hand, my mother—as a student and employee—states that since so many students at the community college have limited resources they are more likely to do well seeing any and all opportunities as crucial.

Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, New York City

Ability to communicate on the job: When my mom comes to me for career advice it is always about how to talk to her supervisors. Her supervisors went to schools like my alma mater and she often feels as though she can’t articulate her thoughts and concerns well enough for them to be taken seriously or understood properly. Of course, in my view, there are two people in that conversation and she should not be the only one making an effort for understanding. However my mother brings up an interesting point: people with similar educational backgrounds tend to talk to each other even if the office itself is diverse and the ways in which they talk are perceived as different.

The presence of diversity: As much as colleges like mine may try, they very rarely reach the diversity of community colleges. Many of the students at Haverford, including myself, were groomed to be there: prep schools, test prep programs, and family members that attended. We were given many of the tools necessary to thrive and the professors there knew how to teach us. This is very different from community colleges which draw immigrants, students who are the first to attend college, parents, professionals, younger students, older students, and people of different ethnic backgrounds. Classroom dynamics are different: I very rarely saw heated debates in the classroom while my mother says they happen all of the time, making students the educators while frustrating teachers who are often ill prepared to handle such differences.

Interestingly none of our discussions focused on the texts or subjects we learned and enjoyed. Instead we were exploring how school is really about the transfer and acquisition of social and cultural capital: the invisible but important manifestations of class and education. Speech, interests, mannerisms, style of dress, and aspirations all are shaped by the kind of institution you attend and shape people’s perceptions of you.

During our discussions we had a variety of questions and would love to get your input:

Is there an inherent inequality in the way these two institutions are set up or are the differences merely a reflection of different educational needs and aspirations?

How much do these manifestations of class and education matter in an economy that is increasingly global and connected where people adopt different ways of doing things all of the time?

What role does the quality of teaching play in how students acquire capital? Are there other factors ed and not ed related?