Influential backgrounds

21
Do our backgrounds decide our success and “education” in college? Study conducted by sophomore Joe Short INFLUENTIAL BACKGROUNDS

description

Influential backgrounds. Do our backgrounds decide our success and “education” in college? Study conducted by sophomore Joe Short. What exactly is being researched?. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transcript of Influential backgrounds

Page 1: Influential backgrounds

Do our backgrounds decide our success and “education” in college?

Study conducted by sophomore Joe Short

INFLUENTIAL BACKGROUNDS

Page 2: Influential backgrounds

WHAT EXACTLY IS BEING RESEARCHED?

The topic of this project is centered around comparing the backgrounds of twelve Bloomsburg University Students

and seeing if their backgrounds determined their success and their level of “education”.

This study could possibly answer the age old question, who is more educated?

City vs. Country??

Page 3: Influential backgrounds

HOW IS THIS RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHED?• The students were broken up into a rural and urban group, and then further into a

men and women group. Making 3 rural men, 3 rural women, 3 urban men, and 3 urban women.

• To separate the urban interviewees from the rural interviewees I set several requirements.

• The cutoff size of the school was 350 students in the graduating class.

• Rural under 350 and urban over 350.

• The area also had to fit a description, seeing that there are schools in urban areas that do not exceed 350 students in the graduating class.

• Some of the descriptions were living in the suburbs, cities, inner cities, and general high population qualified as urban. Farms, woods, and open country counted as rural. The basic opinion on where the person thought they belonged was also taken into consideration.

Page 4: Influential backgrounds

THE QUESTIONING • This is the single most important part of the research.

• There were a high number of questions I asked to each person, each interview lasting about 30 minutes.

• There instructions were to just listen to the questions and then just openly talk for as long as they wanted about the question and what they thought was a correct answer.

• In reality there was no correct answer, but allowing them to think this made them talk and be very specific with some of their examples.

• The questions were based on three deferent areas that led to them determine their perceived success and their “education”

• The three areas were parental controls which were curfews and overall freedom, their high school years, and their college years.

Page 5: Influential backgrounds

WHAT WERE SOME OF THE QUESTIONS?• Some of the more important questions that were used were:

• Describe your hometown and high school.

• How were you raised in terms of curfews and overall granted freedom from your parents?

• What activities did they participate in during high school and what did they do outside of high school?

• Describe your friends and what activities they did in and out of high school.

• 1st perception of college and if it changed later on.

• What activities did they participate in at Bloomsburg University.

• Describe who they hang out with in college and what were the activities their college friends participated in.

• Finally ask them what they think they have gotten out of college so far and if they consider themselves successful and “educated”

Page 6: Influential backgrounds

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS• Some of the questions that I asked I left optional because these questions focus deeper

into their personal life.

• Some of these questions were:

• Describe you and your friends alcohol use in high school and in college.

• Describe your family.

• What is your current GPA?

Page 7: Influential backgrounds

RESULTS :RURAL MEN

High School College

Alcohol use inHigh School

PersonalActititiesMatched Friend'sActivitiesMore Freedom inHigh School

More DiverseHigh School

Slice 5

Alcohol use inCollege

PersonalActivitiesMatched Friend'sActivitiesMore Freedom inCollege

More Diersity inCollege

More Diversity inCollege

Page 8: Influential backgrounds

RURAL MEN OVERALL• Overall the rural men seemed to gain more experiences in college. These changes were

mainly in alcohol use and in diversity.

• Some of the results that were not posted on the pie chart were:

• The marital status of the parents had no indication on how much freedom they had.

• Cliques existed just as much in high school as college.

• Most of the friends they met in college were the people they met when they first arrived as freshmen.

• All the men feel more experienced in dealing with diversity.

• All of them have had a change in perception of college, most thought it would be a big party and there would be alcohol everywhere, when in reality they noticed that college was not set around it.

• All the men academically preformed around the same GPA wise in high school and college and claimed to be successful.

Page 9: Influential backgrounds

URBAN MEN

High School College

Alcohol Use

PersonalActivitiesMatched Friend'sActivitiesMore Freedom inHigh School

Diversity Higherin High School

Alcohol Use

PersonalActivitiesMactchedFriend's ActivitiesMore Freedom inCollege

More Diversity inCollege

Page 10: Influential backgrounds

URBAN MEN OVERALL• Overall the Urban Men also gained more experience in college. The change was mainly

in alcohol use.

• Some of the results not listed on the pie charts were:

• The martial status of the parents did not have any correlation with their level of control.

• Their high schools had cliques, there seemed to be a larger variety compared to the rural men.

• They all had the same amount of freedom in college and high school.

• Their 1st perception of college was also centered around the idea of alcohol and its overwhelming presence. However, they noted that their opinion changed and they basically all said its there you just decide yourself whether or not to go find it.

• They also noted that they needed to study more than they did in high school.

• Most of the people they hang out with they also met during their freshman year.

• They all claimed to be successful college students.

Page 11: Influential backgrounds

OVERALL COMPARISON OF RURAL AND URBAN MEN

• The men in this study were very much alike. They had a lot of the same opinions and situations. However, the main difference between them was that the urban men were generally more experienced in different cultures than the rural men.

• Both groups activities matched their friends activities.

• Alcohol use was relatively the same.

• Perceptions of college was also eerily similar.

• Both also claimed to be successful but refused sharing GPA.

• These results show that the men in rural areas are not so different than in urban areas. I was surprised myself about how many similarities they actually shared.

Page 12: Influential backgrounds

RURAL WOMEN

High School College

Alcohol Use

PersonalActivitiesMatched Friend'sActivitiesMore Freedom inHigh School

More Diversity inHigh School

Alcohol Use

PersonalActivitiesMatched Friend'sActivitiesMore Freedom inCollege

More Diversity inCollege

Page 13: Influential backgrounds

RURAL WOMEN OVERALL• The rural women experienced the biggest change from high school to college.

• This is seen both in the graph and non graph portions of the research.

• The marital status of the parents was insignificant.

• Their high schools experienced cliques.

• Their 1st perception of college was overall a scared or nervous idea and they also thought there would be loads of peer pressure and alcohol use.

• Their perceptions completely changed, noting that there is very little peer pressure and all scared or nervous feeling were gone. They still believe that there is a lot of alcohol use but it is not viewed as the “crisis” that is was before.

• Their experience dealing with different cultures has also greatly improved. Having dealt with virtually none in high school, they are very experienced as college students dealing with diversity.

• All of the women I interviewed met their friends their freshmen year in the dorms.

• All three said they feel successful as students and more experienced in the world.

• In general, 2 of the 3 claimed to be much more independent.

Page 14: Influential backgrounds

URBAN WOMEN

High School College

Alcohol Use

PersonalActivitiesMatched Friend'sActivitiesMore Freedom inHigh School

More Diversity inHigh School

Alcohol Use

PersonalActivitiesMatched Friend'sActivitiesMore Freedom inCollege

More Diversity inCollege

Page 15: Influential backgrounds

URBAN WOMEN OVERALL• Overall the urban women had similar results to the Urban male group.

• The Urban Women also were more balanced and there was little change from chart to chart.

• Once again marital status of the parents seems to make no difference in the results.

• The high school experienced cliques.

• The 1st perception that these women had about college was generally laid back and not worried. They did match everyone else in their thought that alcohol would be everywhere, but generally they did not seemed concerned.

• The perceptions have not changed much, the only thing that was acknowledged was that the amount of school work went up.

• These women also met most of their current friends their freshman year in the dorms.

• All the women I asked said they were very successful students and felt like they gained more independence in college.

Page 16: Influential backgrounds

OVERALL COMPARISON OF RURAL AND URBAN WOMEN

• This was the group that showed the biggest difference.

• The rural women, generally, had less freedom in high school and were less experienced with diverse cultures.

• This also showed when the perceptions changed, the urban women's perceptions did not seem to change as much as the rural women.

• In a way it almost seems like because of having more freedom and being more experienced in diversity made the urban women more relaxed about the idea of college.

• At the same time though, the rural women were definitely the ones that gained the most experience and became more “educated” because of the amount of control and the lack of diversity they suffered and had to overcome.

Page 17: Influential backgrounds

OVERALL RESULTS• Some of the individual results found by this study:

• Cliques were present in all the high school that I interviewed. This information supports the observation that I did at the commons. People are creatures of habit, and a large number of people that were seen in the commons were traveling in groups from place to place like they did all through high school.

• Marital status of the parents did not seem to affect the success or the “education” level of the students.

• The pictures of the rooms did not seem to have any correlation to the background of the person. Generally the women had more decorated rooms than the men.

Page 18: Influential backgrounds

OVERALL RESULTS• This study told a lot about how backgrounds affect our success and “education”.

• Three of the four groups that I categorized had very similar results. One of the four groups was very different and the main difference between that group and the other three groups was the level of control that was administered to them.

• The rural women were the most controlled, they were the ones that had less freedom in high school and more freedom in college. Why is this important? This higher level of control allowed the women to be more affected by college. This is because there was such a drastic shift for them, going from many rules and a curfew to being able to do what ever they wanted and being exposed to all the different cultures ad situations that college has to offer. The transition for the rural women was greater than any other group because of those reasons.

• The main supporting evidence I have for this was gain from the questions dealing with the 1st perception of college and how it was changed.

Page 19: Influential backgrounds

OVERALL RESULTS• The main supporting evidence I have for this was gain from the questions dealing with the

1st perception of college and how it was changed. The rural women talked the longest about how different their experiences were from high school to college. They mentioned that they are more independent, they feel like they can take care of themselves, and they are now more experienced and confident with different cultures.

• What made this stick out the most to me was that from interviews it seemed like both of the Urban groups already experienced all of this. Generally they had more freedom and were already more experienced with different cultures than the Rural group. It seems like they already had a lot of the experiences that the Rural group lacked. This is also why I believe the Rural women became more “educated” in college, its because they lacked some of the everyday situations that the Urban group had.

• The Urban group definitely became more educated in college, it was just not as much as the Rural women.

Page 20: Influential backgrounds

OVERALL RESULTS• The Rural men were lacking in experience with diversity, but I found that they were not as

affected as much as the Rural women in my study.

• I believe the reason the Rural men’s results were not as extreme as the Rural Woman’s results was because they had more freedom during high school. They would have been more comfortable meeting new people and would have interacted with people of a different culture better just because they have had more experience interacting with others. They were generally less subject to curfews and allowed to go basically where they wanted to go and hang out with whom ever they wanted to hang out with. An experience that the Rural women generally lacked.

Page 21: Influential backgrounds

IN CONCLUSION• The results from this study show that the background does not matter as much as the

level of control that is placed on a person. The study showed that the group that was the most controlled in their high school years became more educated in college because of the sudden change in their situation. It does not matter if you are from an Urban background or a Rural background, the main factor is just how much you are allowed to experience. Everyone that goes to college is going to gain a higher level of “education”, but some groups will gain more during the college years than others.