III. The Background Of The Students

One would perhaps think that when college doors are opened to persons of all ages, the student body would mirror the age distribution of the larger community. Or, generalizing from the experience of extension services, one might expect a group of students sometimes described as "old ladies with hats". Both of these notions are far from the truth. The sight of persons 45 years or older in the classroom is likely to stand out in one’s perception and memory, so it is understandable that an image of the school as one composed of older students has arisen.

Chart II depicts the age of the degree students in the School of General Studies. It is clear that the School differs significantly from a conventional college, but it differs even more radically from the larger community. Most students are in their twenties and the median age is 28 years. Less than 5 per cent of the students are over 45 years of age and less than one per cent are over 55, whereas almost 40 per cent are 25 or younger,

Note:
In the whole body of degree students there are nearly 6 females per 10 males. In the age group under 23 there are 15 females per 10 males, between 23 and 30 there are only 3 females per 10 males, and among those above 30 there are 7 females per every 10 males.

Another common source of misconception is found in notions about the students’ background. It has been generally believed that the School of General Studies consists of students who, so to speak, missed the first boat at conventional college age and who now have a belated chance to obtain college education. It is true that many students are such delayed starters, but they are not in the majority. No less than 55 per cent of the degree students have attended other colleges prior to their enrollment in the School of General Studies.

Finally, it is commonly believed that all General Studies students have experienced significant breaks in their education. To a great extent this is true, but we need a more detailed picture. The admissions office of a conventional college would in all likelihood consider for admission applicants who have been out of high school for three semesters. And he would discount entirely the fact that some boys spent time in the armed services before applying to college. If we thus allow three semesters away from school and disregard time spent in the armed forces, we find by these criteria that two-thirds (66 per cent) of the degree students in General Studies have experienced a break in their education. The remaining 34 per cent are like conventional college students in that they have been exposed to almost continuous education from childhood until the present.

Instead of talking about the General Studies student in terms of adjectives such as "old," "inexperienced in the ways of college," and "delayed in his education," it may be suggested that there are four significant types of degree students in the School of General Studies:

1. The Direct Starters. The direct starters are the students who have been away from education less than three semesters except for time spent in the armed forces, and who have not attended any other college but General Studies. All Validation Students belong in this category, but also many others. The direct starters treat General Studies as they would a conventional college. To some, full-time attendance at a conventional college was impossible for medical reasons and they enjoy the privilege of part-time study afforded by General Studies. A larger group utilizes the same privilege in order to have full-time employment, and some work at Columbia University which entitles them to two tuition-free courses in the School of General Studies each semester. One such Direct Starter speaks about herself:
   
   I was told by my vocational guidance counselor in high school where I could get free tuition. I had considered applying for scholarships to various colleges, but it was necessary because of my family’s (financial) status that I work. So I didn’t bother about scholarships. I came here directly from high school, quite directly! I was lucky that I didn’t have very much trouble in getting a position (at Columbia).
   
   Allowing for three semesters delay, for military service and for part-time attendance, this group is older than the conventional college students to whom they otherwise correspond: the median age is 23. The group is small, but it is there to reckon with: 13 per cent of the degree students are Direct Starters.
2. The Delayed Starters. The delayed starters are students who have experienced a significant break in their education (two years or longer, not counting military service) and who have not attended any other college prior to General Studies. These are truly students who missed the first chance, but took the second one. In a real sense, the School of General Studies was made for them by its removal of the barrier represented by "college age". Their median age is 30 years. The case of one of them, a pre-law student, might be cited as an illustration:
   
   I finished high school. Well, it was then in the early thirties and there were not many jobs. So I became an apprentice in a machine shop. After my apprenticeship, I worked as a machinist until I went into the Army. After the (World) War (II), I returned to my job as a machinist, but began taking Civil Service exams. I was married then and wanted something secure. So I’m now an investigator in the Assistant District Attorney’s office. On my new job several of my co-workers were taking courses and since I was entitled to educational benefits under the G. I. Bill, I decided to try it, too.
   
   These delayed starters are the most distinct feature of the School of General Studies. However, they are not the most common type of students there. We find that 32 per cent of the degree students are Delayed Starters.
3. The Direct Transfers. The direct transfer students have gone to other colleges and have transferred to General Studies without experiencing a significant break in their education. These comments by a twenty-three year-old transfer student are typical:
   
   I had attended the University of Virginia before I had to go into service. I haven’t attended college for the past three years due to my time in the service. I didn’t feel like going to another college where I would have to take courses like Physical Education, or orientation courses, which I don’t think are necessary for me now. Besides, Columbia is near my home and I can commute easily every day. Another reason is the varied times when classes are given. I can plan my courses to fit in a job, or to allow myself some extra study time between classes.
   
   Like the Direct Starters, the median age of Direct Transfers is 23, and they would be equally eligible to enter a conventional college. We find that 21 per cent of the degree students are Direct Transfers.
4. The Delayed Transfers. A delayed transfer student has gone to a conventional college, but left it before graduation and has been away from school for two years or more (in addition to possibly having had military service), and then enrolled in the School of General Studies. Most undergraduate schools have a significant drop-out rate, and only part of this rate is a result of the policy of the college to enforce academic or disciplinary norms. Many students – mostly girls – leave voluntarily to get married and many – mostly boys – leave to enter a more immediately gainful employment. These ex-students can be given a chance to resume their education and realize their original intention of obtaining college degree by enrolling in the School of General Studies. As an illustration, a forty-three year old immigrant majoring in geology speaks:
   
   I have been to college before. I spent two and a half years studying pre-med at the University of London. I failed an important exam at that time and my father refused to finance me further. He said I had too many outside interests, and that I was wasting my time and his money, so I left. Actually I was always more interested in rocks and plants than I was in medicine. I studied that because it had greater prestige. I suppose I would have stood up to my father and finished anyway if I had been interested enough in a medical career. I got a job and later I planned to go back and finish college on my own money, but the war broke out and I went into the Dutch navy instead. After the war I left London and came to New York because I had an inheritance here which was being mismanaged by a lawyer. I wanted to study for a profession. One day my landlady told me about Columbia. I took the subway and came right up. There were lines of people queing up to register, so I got on the end of a queue and registered right then.
   
   The Delayed Transfers have a median age of 30. It is interesting to note that this category of people, who started but never completed college, which in the society at large is very small – only a few per cent of the total population – constitutes the largest group of degree students in the School of General Studies: 34 per cent are Delayed Transfers.

This composition of the student body at Columbia’s college for adults is depicted in Chart III. A conventional college attracts Direct Starters and a few Direct Transfers. The School of General Studies differs in that it attracts such a small proportion of Direct Starters and a comparatively large proportion of Direct Transfers, and it is unique in that two-thirds of the students are Delayed Starters or Delayed Transfers.

It is plain that the Direct Starters and Direct Transfers have been engaged in full-time study practically since childhood. The Delayed Starters and Delayed Transfers, however, have engaged in additional full-time pursuits as well. Let us focus for a moment on what those students who have been away from school for a significant period have done.

Our society does not take a permissive attitude toward idleness. For most post-adolescents the choice is not between study or not study, but one between work and study. We find that 87 per cent of the Delayed Starters and 85 per cent of the Delayed Transfers have held gainful employment during the break in their education.

About half of the delayed students have married and about half of the wives among them have been full-time housewives, More precisely, 13 per cent of the Delayed Students were exclusively occupied with full-time homemaking or childrearing during their break. The others were gainfully employed.

There is, of course, much more that could be said about the background of students who utilize the opportunity to attend an adult college at Columbia University. 20)  However, what has already been noted will have to suffice for the time being for the main theme of this study. We shall now shift our attention from the question of what our students were like before they came to General Studies to the equally important problem of their major activities while attending the School of General Studies.

Adults going to college cannot suddenly abandon their other adult activities. Unlike students of conventional college age, they are likely to have developed extensive commitments to work, to family, and to the community. In some way or another, they must fit their studies into the fabric of their adult lives.

The most obvious of these extra-curricular commitments is work. 72 per cent of the degree students in General Studies hold gainful employment as compared to 41 per cent in Columbia College. The difference shown by these figures is misleadingly small. It is more revealing to say that 61 per cent in the adult college work more than 30 hours a week as compared to 2 per cent in the conventional college. In fact, half of the degree students in General Studies hold what the community calls full-time jobs.

Second to employment, the most important extra-curricular activity of the degree students in General Studies is marriage and family. Two out of five students are (or have been) married: 34 per cent are now married, 5 per cent are separated or divorced, and somewhat less than 1 per cent are widowed. (In Columbia College less than 3 per cent of the students are married.) Marriage is, of course, more common among the delayed students, of whom practically half are married as compared to less than a quarter of the Direct Starters or Direct Transfers. More significant, perhaps is, the fact that 45 per cent of the married students have children. This means that about every fifth degree student in a classroom in General Studies has one or more children, who occupy at least a part of his or her time.

Finally, among the outside activities that students at an adult college engage in, are the community organizations that are not related to the college – these range in scope from Community Chests, Parent-Teacher Associations, and League of Women Voters to labor unions and trade associations. Fifty per cent of the degree students belong to such voluntary associations.

In short, it is possible for a sizeable number of General Studies degree students to have full lives apart from the School. This contrasts sharply with the conventional student who is just launched from home into four years of protected campus life, which will be in large part dominated by the college. However, this fact should not cause us to forget our previous findings that a significant number of the students in General Studies are Direct Starters or Transfers who have not yet assumed full adult responsibilities. Thus it should be no surprise that 38 per cent of the degree students still live with their parents and that an additional 4 per cent live with a kind of surrogate parent, the university dormitory. By comparison, 55 per cent of the students in Columbia College live with their parents and 40 per cent live in dormitories or fraternity houses.

We have thus far seen the students of a Columbia University undergraduate school for adults in terms of their past and present positions in society. Let us now approach the more difficult question of what motivation these students had for enrolling. Since human motivation is complex and our research methods are crude, we cannot expect to do justice to all its facets and layers. We can, however, in a general way, discuss what pushes from the past the students have experienced and what pulls from the future attract them to the School.

The students know that academic achievements count in our society. Their vision of a better life beyond college, beyond the classrooms, beyond the assignments and the tests, is often quite clear. To achieve a better position they are willing to sacrifice money, leisure-time, and the many lures of the city of New York. Table 3 compares their present occupations to what they realistically think will be their life careers. It is to be noted that ninety-two per cent of the degree students who have definite vocational plans aim at a professional and managerial post. This should be compared with the 34 per cent of the Delayed Students who already hold jobs in this bracket – usually in the lowest part of this bracket – prior to their enrollment in the School of General Studies, and the 32 per cent who hold them while attending the School. The incentive furnished by this vision of a better future cannot be underestimated. 

However, long before our students knew about the advantages of going to college, influential persons close to them knew about it. Plato and many others have made the observation that parents do not like to see their children in lower social positions than they themselves occupy. Parents like to see children in the same or in better positions than they enjoyed; to see them in lower positions hurts their pride. If we are to grasp the full force of parental pressures to college attendance we must juxtapose this universal sentiment of family life with a major trend of modern society, namely the decline in self-employment. Two or three generations ago the majority of the population were farmers, small businessmen and entrepreneurs. Parents with these occupations could easily pass their positions on to their children by letting them inherit the farm, the business, or the shop. Since that time we have experienced a huge upsurge in salaries, white-collar positions. Industrial enterprises have grown larger and become bureaucratically organized, and essential functions of the society have become the monopoly of free or salaried professionals. Unlike the self-employed man of the past generations, the salaried administrative worker and the professional man cannot pass their privileged positions on to their children. The best these parents can do to insure their children from falling by the wayside socially is to give them a higher education. Thus college education for the children of the managerial and professional classes is not so much a means of advancing the family socially as it is a holding operation to maintain a family position already achieved. The popular discussions of college as a channel for upward mobility too frequently tend to overlook this.

In any study of college population one should, therefore, expect a large proportion of students from the professional and managerial classes. 21)  The School of General Studies proves no exception: 52 per cent of the degree students come from such homes. The proportion from managerial and professional homes is highest among the Direct and Delayed Transfers – 57 and 51 per cent, respectively – and lowest among the Direct and Delayed Starters – 34 and 43 per cent respectively.

For the parents who occupy such privileged positions it becomes essential to encourage their children to go through college. 22)  This is the easiest way by which they can pass a privileged position on to their children. One student recalling the sentiments at her parents’ home recalls:

College was taken for granted just like future birthdays were taken for granted. My father’s feeling about it was so strong that he almost refused to talk about any alternative.

In a teamster’s home, the encouragement was of a different kind:

I remember the day my father told me that there were enough savings to send me to college. I had overheard him talking to mother about it before, so I was prepared and almost used to the idea that this was the way I would get ahead.

In Table 4 we have some statistical data from degree students in the School of General Studies, which can be interpreted along the lines’ suggested by these assumptions.

We find that in managerial and professional homes, where college is, on the whole, necessary for holding the family position, the pressure from parents is strongest. In the homes of low-ranking white-collar workers and blue-collar workers, where college is a means of advancing the family position, the pressure is often there but not as pronounced. In the most general terms it might be suggested that in more than two-fifths of the cases the foundation for the motivation to attend college can be located in the pressures of parents growing out of desire to maintain the privileged position of their families in the social structure. In another two-fifths of the cases, the beginning of the motivation to attend college can be seen in a desire of parents or relatives to improve their family's position by securing a college education for the children.

For the remaining group – less than one-fifth of the cases – the beginning of the desire to attend college is probably to be found outside their parents' home: in the encouragement of friends, high school teachers, spouses or sweethearts, and others. Where direct encouragement is missing, invidious comparisons often furnish the pressure to enroll in college. One female student recalls:

My parents never mentioned college. But in high school, most of the popular girls and most of my friends took a pre-college sequence, so I switched to that too. My folks fussed a little and said I was going to get married anyway, but my decision to switch did stick.

Looking back at their high school friends, the degree students in the School of General Studies usually decide that "all" or "most" of their friends went to college. Sixty-nine per cent of the Direct Transfers find this to be the case, 51 per cent of the Delayed Transfers and 50 per cent of the Direct Starters. Regardless of the position taken by their parents, these students are likely to have developed also among themselves the idea that college is the thing to do after high school. Three-quarters of the degree students in the School of General Studies also report that their high school friends "always" or "sometimes" encouraged them to go to college. And this encouragement was often seconded by high school teachers.

These sources of motivation to go to college often overlap. Table 5 attempts to summarize the discussed factors during adolescence which explicitly encourage college enrollment.

Thus we find that although the students in the School of General Studies are older, they were, on the whole, exposed to rather strong influences during adolescence to attend college. These pressures were strongest and most consistent among the Direct Transfers, the category that also has most closely lived up to these expectations. Less consistent and less strong pressures were put on the Direct Starters and the Delayed Transfers, but they were apparently strong enough to make them start college at normal college age. The age when the students decided to go to college is perhaps the best measure of the result of these pressures. The following figures indicate the median age of the students at the time of their decision to go to college:

As could perhaps have been anticipated from our earlier discussion, the typical Direct Transfer decided earliest, followed by the typical Delayed Transfer and Direct Starter.

The delayed students have also had post-adolescent experiences relevant to their motivation to get a college degree. One instance of these motivations experienced by many delayed students may be seen in this comment:

After the war I had a job in Germany working for the U.S. High Commissioner in the occupation government. We handled the restitution of property stolen by the Nazis to its former owners. In this job, I worked under the State Department, and I was handicapped by the fact that I hadn’t been to college. There were many nice jobs to be had in our office, but I was by-passed by college boys. I would have advanced further if I had been a college graduate.

College opens the door to higher positions with greater gratifications. Those who are placed in a social situation that allows them to perceive more intimately the greater gratifications of the higher ranks become strongly motivated to qualify for these ranks. As we have seen, a large number of Delayed Students had occupations prior to their enrollment in the School of General Studies. It is possible to compare their occupations with those of all males in the larger society who have not graduated from college. The comparison of the student’s pre-enrollment occupations with these national estimates is found in Table 6.

It is very plain that those who elect to come to the School of General Studies after having established themselves in an occupation are a select group, not a random selection from the labor forces. They are drawn primarily from the highest echelons that persons without college degrees can achieve. Those who become delayed students were mostly white-collar workers, while those who have remained outside college are pre-dominantly blue-collar workers. Moreover, among those who belatedly went to college, an unusually high proportion had obtained jobs of a somewhat professional character: 33 per cent of the employed Delayed Starters and 35 per cent of the employed Delayed Transfers have held professional or managerial positions. These jobs undoubtedly have brought them into contact with colleagues or superiors who hold college degrees. Over half of the delayed students report that co-workers on their jobs encouraged them to take up college. This pressure might be due to the fact that many delayed students tended to hold jobs that often require a college degree. Thus, their employers and supervisors might want them to validate their promotions by obtaining the commensurate education.

We have seen before that half of the delayed students are married. Courtship and marriage, of course, placed them in a new group whose attitude toward college is most relevant. In many instances we find encouragement from spouse or fiance(e): 68 per cent of the Delayed Starters and 80 per cent of the Delayed Transfers were "always" or "often encouraged" by their mates to go to college. Occasionally, this encouragement is a part of a deliberate family plan. One Delayed Transfer said:

I left college to get married, or, rather, I left to work my husband through graduate school. Now he has his degree and has a teaching job. Now I am back at school and it is my turn again.

Deliberate encouragement from their own families explains in part why some Delayed Transfers decided to give college a second try. It is also interesting to note that two-thirds of the Delayed Starters were subject to some pressure to consider applying to a college when they got engaged or married. This is in part a reflection of the fact that they married well: 87 per cent of the Delayed women who are married have husbands who are administrators or professionals.

The complex and subtle ways in which a group may influence a new member to change established ideas about college education are vividly depicted in the following excerpt from an interview. The interviewee is a middle-aged woman, a Delayed Starter:

My father is a physician and my husband is a physician. My parents didn’t really encourage me to go to college. But they did want me to marry a doctor, so they put me through a school for X-ray technicians. I met more doctors that way, and I married an intern. He didn’t earn anything while he was an intern, and my job was getting us through.

(Did you ever feel handicapped without a college degree?)

No, never at that time. You know, my father had a fine standing with the community and was friends with the best people. My husband started to share office with him, and I got busy in all sorts of volunteer work...

(Did your husband ever indicate anything about you and college?)

He never said that I should go back to school. No, he always told me that I’m so bright and don’t need to go to college.

(How about your friends?)

Oh, most of them are college graduates, and they often take it for granted that I am one, too. It is embarrassing when they ask me from where I graduated.

(Can you tell an instance when this happened?)

What do you mean? I don’t know.

(An instance when your friends talked about college and you felt embarrassed?)

Oh, it happens. (pause)

(Could you tell about one time it happened?)

It was in the Army. My husband was drafted as a doctor, and we lived in a doctor’s barrack There were lots of other doctors there and their wives. All our husbands had been drafted and had the same rank, and all the barracks looked alike. There wasn’t any way in which one couple could be said to be better off than another. We were all alike. Some of the wives didn’t like that, so they started to compare the fine colleges from which they graduated. So they asked from where I graduated and I said ‘Walton.' ‘Is that a college?’ ‘No, it is a high school.' Then they had me placed, and down I went in the esteem of everybody. – It’s funny I haven’t thought much about it, but I guess it left quite a mark It made me want to go to college.

(That was long ago?)

Yes, but you know, when my husband was called for overseas duty and I was alone in the city, I started to go to Hunter College.

(Oh?)

I said that before that my husband never cared about that I hadn't gone to college. It wasn't really so. When he was overseas, a friend of his whom he had met in Europe came to visit me. He was surprised when I told him I was going to Hunter. My husband had told him that I was a graduate of Hunter. So, I guess he wanted me to go to college after all – I often thought about this, but I never mentioned it to my husband. But I knew that as soon as my children started to go to school I would to back to college.

This comes from a person who already occupies a high position in the community, has a fine home, sits on important committees in respected voluntary associations, et cetera. But she lacks formal education, and whenever the conversation turns to education, she feels declassed. She apparently enrolled in the college for adults, not to obtain a position of higher qualifications in the economic structure, or to be able to associate with more fashionable people in the social world, but rather to bring her educational rank to the level of her economic and social standard. 24)  This is the story of a small but interesting group of delayed students. They enjoy privileged positions without having the commensurate education and now they want an academic degree to consolidate their status. It was noted earlier that when the Delayed Starters were asked to recall how many of their high school friends went to college, only 25 per cent could say that "all" or "most" of their friends did so. If we ask them about their present friends, however, we find that 47 per cent find that "all" or "most" have gone to college. In short, many of the delayed students have moved into somewhat higher socio-economic groups where higher education is more common. So they come to General Studies to achieve for themselves the kind of education that goes with their new group and new status.

20) It is, for example, a curious fact that the majority, or 60 per cent of the degree students in the School of General Studies, were born outside the New York Metropolitan area. It is also worthwhile to observe that one out of five – 22 per cent to be exact – are foreign born, and that an additional 36 per cent have at least one parent born abroad. Thus more than half (58 per cent) of the degree students are either foreign born or first generation Americans. Generally, the degree students count their ancestry from the British Isles (27 per cent), Ireland (19 per cent), Central Europe (29 per cent), Northern Europe (21 per cent), Southern Europe (16 per cent) and Eastern Europe (18 per cent). Five per cent are Negroes and less than one per cent are Orientals. The religious background of the body of degree students corresponds closely to that of New York City: 36 per cent Catholics, 19 per cent Jews, 37 per cent Protestants, and 8 per cent with another or no religious identification.

21) This is true for all countries from which we have information. See C. Arnold Anderson, "The Social Status of University Students in Relation to Type of Economy," Transactions of the Third World Congress of Sociology, vol. V, International Sociological Association, London, 1956, pp. 51-63. The situation in the United States differs from that of the European countries primarily in that there are so many more college students per 1000 population and that a larger proportion of them come from working class homes and do not seem to need college education to maintain a family position.

23) Ct. Herbert H. Hyman, "The Value System of Different Social Classes: A Social Psychological Contribution to the Analysis of Stratification" in R. Bendix and S. M. Lipset (editors), Class, Status and Power, The Free Press, Glencoe, 1953, pp. 426-442.

24) For more general discussions of this process see, Emile Benoit-Smullyan, "Status, Status Types and Status Inter relations." American Sociological Review, vol. 9 (1944), pp. 151-161; E. L.Hartley and R. E. Hartley, Fundamentals of Social Psychology, Knopt, New York, 1952, pp. 587 ff.; Gerhard E. Lenski, Status Crystallization: A Non-vertical Dimension of Social Status, American Sociological Review, vol. 19 (1954), pp. 405-413.