Signalling, student identities, and college access: a proposed conceptual model of college choice and going

Abstract

Relying on a multitude of studies from the college choice literature, I propose an updated model of college going and choice that draws on four conceptual, theoretical, and analytic approaches. With guidance from the economic, sociological, information processing, and combined theories of college choice, I situate my proposed framework within this extant literature to provide some direction and formal conceptualization of the role that signalling and identity play with regard to college access. In addition to understanding students’ identities within typical utility models, this essay also attempts to carefully consider both the explicit and implicit assumptions about valued identity categories (insiders) and those that are less valued (outsiders) in the college going and choice process. Finally, through deliberate examination of how signals are sent to students and the acquisition of signals (credentials) by students, I consider how this relays information about which identities are valued by higher education socially, and by specific institutions in particular. In so doing, I feel that I have laid a foundation for future work that carefully ties philosophical and public good notions back to the college choice process and to higher education’s underlying ethos of service in the public interest.