Choosing a College Stephanie Bieler Literature and Society Dr. Sherry

Problem College is a big decision and deciding where to go can be tough. How do students pick the college they will spend their academic careers in?

Proposed Response to Problem Summarizing studies of college culture  My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student by Rebekah Nathan (2005) Interpreting ethnographic data Finding a conclusion as to why certain people come to Bloomsburg

Background Study of College Culture In 2005, a college professor, Rebekah Nathan, became a student at her own university without anyone knowing. She lived in the dorms and did research to get an understanding of college culture. She completed ethnographic studies at “AnyU” ▫Looked at dorm room behaviors, participation in certain activities, and the habits of the students

Background Nathan studied what students do during the day and kept time diaries. Looking at a boy named Ossie’s time diary and by asking what a typical day is like for him he states… ▫“I stay at the university because of my friends, if it wasn't for them I'd be at a different school.” pg. 36  This suggests that his college experience is based on his friends. ▫Also, he states how he changed his major seven times and he likes to socialize at least three times a week.  This also may suggest that he doesn’t know about his academics, but worries more about socializing.

But what about Bloomsburg? Why did some students choose to go to Bloomsburg? Is their reason for coming the reason that they stay?

Method Interpret ethnographic data by: ▫Surveying Bloomsburg students about a typical day  By examining this data, I hope to get an understanding of what is important to some students and why they stay. ▫Interviewing five Bloomsburg students  By examining this data, I hope to get a clear understanding of why these students decided to come to Bloom and if they still like it here.

Time Diaries Asked two freshmen girls about what they did that day and recorded it. Summarized what I found to be common between both girls to see if their may be a connection to why people stay. ActivitiesHours spent Sleep6 Class2 Walk1 Play xbox3 Read cosmo2 Get ready1 Socialize5 Eat2 Music2 ActivitiesHours spent Sleep8 Class4.5 Eat1 Get ready.5 Walk1 Homework2 Watch tv2 Socialize5

What does this mean? Time Diaries ▫Purple Table  This girl’s schedule suggests that she likes to socialize and that is a priority of hers. There is almost an equal amount of time sleeping and socializing. This may indicate that she could like Bloomsburg because of her social life. ▫Green Table  This girl’s schedule is a little more evened out between academic and social life. However that is when she is in class, she still spends a significant amount of time socializing rather than doing homework. The same conclusion may be drawn for her.

Interviews Interviewed four different girls. I asked them 5 different questions to see what I could conclude. ▫I interviewed them because they were freshmen and I wanted to know the reasons they came here and what they think about it so far. Question 1: How many schools besides Bloomsburg did you apply to? ▫Girl 1: 1 school ▫Girl 2: 4 schools ▫Girl 3: 12 schools ▫Girl 4: 1 school Question 2: How far away do you live from Bloom, and did this influence your decision? ▫Girl 1: 1 hr. and 40 min; no ▫Girl 2: 1 hr. and 30 min; yes, wanted to get away from home, but not too far ▫Girl 3: 2 hrs. and 30 min; no ▫Girl 4: 2 hours; yes, wanted to be near friends and family

Interviews Cont’d Question 3: Why did you decide to come to Bloom? ▫Girl 1: School known for major, which is health care ▫Girl 2: Seemed like a good college, liked campus, and health care program ▫Girl 3: School known for major, which is education ▫Girl 4: Got a scholarship here and both parents went here Question 4: Have you met new people at Bloom? How? ▫Girl 1: yes; dorms and class ▫Girl 2: yes; dorms and class ▫Girl 3: yes; dorms and volleyball ▫Girl 4: yes; dorms and class

Now what? Question 5: Do you like your experience so far at Bloom or do you wish you had done something else? ▫Girl 1: Yes, like it so far because of people ▫Girl 2: Yes, like it so far because of experience ▫Girl 3: Yes, like it so far because of friends met ▫Girl 4: Yes, like it so far because of the people By looking at all of the answers to each question, I was surprised that each girl answered similarly. ▫This was a surprise because I personally thought that a lot of people came here because of friends they may have had coming here, and also four girls who seemed to have nothing in common all came to Bloom and seem to stay for the same purposes. Most of them said how their majors were known here at Bloom. ▫This suggests that these students are more concerned about their education when picking colleges. ▫Also, most of them didn’t care about the distance, which may also prove that education is more important.

Conclusions Looking at the time diaries of the students I asked, it can be assumed that these students spend most of their time socializing rather than doing academics. ▫This could be linked to why all of the people I interviewed like Bloomsburg and want to stay. ▫Nathan’s research on the time diaries of the students also relates to my research because she found that some students spend most days socializing instead of anything else. Looking at the interviews that I conducted and the four freshmen girl’s answers, it can be found from their personal experiences that they came to Bloomsburg based on education. ▫The majority of the girls said that they came for their major because they heard it was known here. ▫Nathan’s research also backs this up with her time diaries with someone like Cynthia who spends all of her time on her major and focuses her time at “AnyU “on that. However, looking at the time diaries this theory seems to be contradicted.

Conclusions Cont’d Maybe these students decided to come to Bloomsburg because of their education, but they decide to stay because of the people they meet. ▫This can be seen from the last question where all four girls said that they wouldn’t change their experience so far. ▫This can also be seen in Nathan’s research where Ossie states that he stays in college because of the friends that he has made.

Work Cited Nathan, R. (2005). My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student. New York: Penguin Group, Ltd.