Polished: College, Class, and the Burdens of Social Mobility

by Melissa Osborne

An illuminating look at the emotional costs of mobility faced by first-generation and low-income college students. While college initiates a major transition in all students’ lives, low-income and first-generation students attending elite schools are often entering entirely new worlds. Amid the financial and academic challenges of adapting to college, their emotional lives, too, undergo a transformation. Surrounded by peers from different classes and cultural backgrounds, they are faced with an impossible turn away from their former lives to blend in or stay true to themselves and remain on the outside.An ethnography that draws on in-depth interviews with one hundred and fifty first-generation and low-income students across eighteen elite institutions, Polished uncovers the hidden consequences of the promise of social mobility in today’s educational landscape. Sociologist Melissa Osborne reveals how the very support designed to propel first-generation students forward can unexpectedly reshape their identities, often putting them at odds with their peers and families. Without direct institutional support, this emotional journey can lead to alienation, mental health challenges, poor academic outcomes, and difficult choices between upward mobility or maintaining authenticity and community. Whether you're an educator, advocate, or student, Polished provides a powerful perspective on the uncharted challenges of social mobility and personal identity during college. 

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Education

231 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2024

Reviews

[Stephanie Becker · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this topic is incredibly interesting-- how students from lower-class backgrounds negotiate the huge shift to elite colleges-- I wanted more depth. The register stayed very academic, without getting into the depths of the some of the sociological theory that the author could have drawn on (maybe Erving Goffman, Durkheim, etc). And while there were anecdotes, the social milieu of the students before and after stayed fairly perfunctory and vague, so the book didn't have the narrative appeal of other works that go more in-depth on individual stories (eg Kotlowitz' work, or for a very in-depth story, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace).

Overall though, I'd recommend to someone who wants to read everything out there about "social mobility" in the US, and challenges that young people face as they attempt to shift to a new environment.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I often tell these stories about visiting my stepfather’s family.

By and large, these are the people I grew up with, given that my mother was estranged from her family, and my father’s family was tiny, and we didn’t spend much time together anyway after my parents’ divorce. So my stepfather’s family gave me the cast of aunts, uncles, and cousins that populated my childhood. A very working class Scots-Irish clan; construction workers, corrections officers, etc.

Anyway. On the rare occasions we get together these days, I often describe my entry to the party as a record scratch. As soon as I walk in the room, I’ve already done something to offend everyone. It’s my clothes. My haircut. My build. My habitus, to borrow this author’s verbiage. Something in my presentation reveals to my family: he is not one of us. He is not like the rest of us. Even worse, he is the enemy.

This is the subject of Polished: the fairly unexplored and often ignored social and cultural ramifications of low-income first generation college attendance. Many universities, particularly the most selective, have done a great job of opening their doors in recent years to more low income and working class students. What this book explores is the impacts those experiences have on these students: on their identities, their relationships with their families and friends, and on their futures.

One of my favorite soapboxes to stand on is this: the most important divide in American political life right now is the one that exists between people who have gone to college, and those who have not. And though this book is not explicitly about that, it does give some deep background on how exactly it is that we arrived at this place, where that divide has occurred and grown over decades to become an unbridgeable chasm.

Here’s the money quote, from a chapter describing the cultural changes many college students experience during their years at school: “Instead of being seen as a phase or a natural part of adolescent development, these classed changes are perceived as aberrant and dangerous. Even further still, many of these students’ families have built their identities in opposition to the educated upper middle class.”

If dry, scholarly sociological texts are your thing, this is for you.

[Sophie Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

an interesting take on what it means to be socially mobile through education and how colleges could be doing more to support students as they experience these changes

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for a well-written, well-researched academic text.

For those of us who are either first generation college students or have spent a lot of time in spaces with first gen students either as peers or clients, much of what Osborne writes rings very true. There was nothing particularly groundbreaking in this book. But it does a good job of thoroughly exploring the identity formation and internal dissension many first gen students experience when they attempt to assimilate at private, usually affluent, usually predominantly white institutions of higher education.

People who are used to reading academic writing will likely find this book more readable. I haven’t regularly read academic writing in many years, so at many junctures, I found myself wishing the tone was more conversational in nature. But ultimately, this is an academic text. Once I got used to the writing style, it felt more readable.

Four solid stars.

[Ray Lister · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book interesting and validating! A must read for educators, therapists, and anyone curious about the experience of first generation college students and those who experience class transition in general.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Osborne beautifully captures the complicated and raw journeys of first generation and low income college students. With this book she challenges the idea that an elite college degree has a solely positive impact on these students. She shows the ways a formal education is not simply just an education, but a fissure in the lives of students who can’t draw on elite experiences within their families and home communities. I especially enjoyed her suggestions on where to go from here: namely increased support of both students and their parents to better bridge the gap in their shared experiences and pathways forward.

[Alyse · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s ok, a bit repetitive and wandering. Missed out on addressing some BIG caveats that likely not support the authors agenda so I suspect were intentionally left out. Decent read as long ask you know you’re getting just one very narrow sliver of student experiences. Hopefully Osborne will expand her pie in the future….?

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. I’ve read many books on this topic and always enjoy/learn. This one broke new ground with pointed suggestions for improvement.

[Katie Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

really helpful book for advising!

[Kaitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a lot to say on this but will have to come back when I have an actual keyboard and not phone to type on. In short, thought provoking from one first gen student to another 💜

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good first gen focus | On things not always addressed | Quite applicable