Ethnic and Personality Patterns in College Entrance

Abstract

ALTHOUGH CONSIDERABLE attention has been given to personality differences between students of various colleges or fields of study, little is known about such differences in high school students who do and do not go on to college. For example, a re cent survey of research concerning factors related to college attendance did not include anyresearchon non-intellectual personality determinants (2). Differ ences between high school seniors and college fresh men can be determined from the norms of such tests as the California Personality Inventory and the Om nibus Personality Inventory, but the data do not al low one to decide whether they are the result of age or selection (7). Only slightly more is known about the relation ship between ethnic status and college attendance. In an early study Goetsch (5) found that Jewish and Scandinavian youths were more likely to go on to col lege than were those of French, Greek, and Italian backgrounds. Strodtbeck (9) found college aspira tion stronger in Jewish than in comparable Italian boys, and Rosen (8) reported higher educational as pirations among Greeks, Jews, white Protestants, and Negroes than in French and Italian groups. Stroup and Andrew (10) found that students from pre dominantly white high schools were more likely to attend college than were students from predominant ly colored ones. In an investigation very pertinent to the present one, Dole (3) studied the educational and vocational aspirations of Hawaii youths of various ages. Sur veying the plans of high school seniors, he found that those of Filipino or Hawaiian descent were corn par atively less likely to plan further education, those of Japanese ancestry were more likely to do so, and Caucasians were average in this regard; among those of Chinese descent, males were more likely to plan to go on, but females demon strated about average aspiration. The present investigation was designed to throw further light on the matter by studying the levels of educational attainment for persons of various per sonality and ethnic characteristics. Specifically, an attempt was made to determine the subsequent col lege status of a large group of subjects for whom cer tain personality and ethnic data had been gathered during their senior year of high school.