Chapter 10 Student Mix and Match

Students filter their reactions through the true center of their college lives, the subcultures to which they belong to. This chapter examines the current state of the traditional subcultures—collegiate, academic, vocational, and rebel—and how these shape student attitudes toward the education, or the lack of it, that they receive at their universities.

It is interesting to read as a college student, about how other college student’s act during the years they are in college. I can compare and contrast. I can relate or even disagree with what they did or said, compare experiences and learn from them. The best part I think from college is the people you meet, the experiences one goes through and growing and developing as a person.

In the chapter the author quotes college students who are in different subcultures. The rebels are into the grateful dead, drugs and go to the bar. The collegiate students just party and don’t care. Academic students, also known as the “nerds” do their homework and that’s about it. The one subculture I like and can kind of relate to are the vocational students who I feel are well rounded and can balance a lot of things at the same time. They are all in one; a rebel, a jock, nerdy and motivated. All of these subcultures are influences, and it is a strong influence which decides a person’s path through out college. One will decide which fits at the time and learn and experience from it.

“The student’s peer group is the single most potent source of influence on growth and development during the undergraduate years, and the student’s values, beliefs, and aspirations tend to change in the direction of the dominant values, beliefs, and aspirations of the peer group.”

It is very interesting to see a student change from freshman year to senior year who hopefully has changed subcultures and created different opportunities and experiences for themselves.

The chapter reveals that college is more than just a place to party and watch sports. College is a culture of its own, and within it are lots of subcultures. In those subcultures is where the students differ and go through phases creating experiences and learning about themselves, and the world around them. The author brought the context away from sports for a little bit and examined the students. At their age during college, students want to explore, and being in class and trying to learn from a boring teacher won’t work. Then the author brought it back to sports and put it simply that in terms of beer and circus—the party scene accompanying big time college sports is this:

“A majority of schools earning very negative ratings in academic categories feature beer and circus; on the other hand, almost every institution achieving high positive ranking in academic categories is not involved in major intercollegiate athletics and none are on the “Party schools” list.”

According to the author, sports distract and hurt students academically. Why? Because sports at Big Time Universities are emphasized more than academics. With sports come celebrations and drinking. Schools that do well academically emphasize academics and stunts the growth of collegiate subculture. Everything depends on which subculture is strongest.