After passing the college entrance examination: the mystery of the divergent career paths of college students

Introduction

Key universities hold the dream of thousands of families to change their fate, and now a series of special enrollment plans have opened the door of opportunity for more students. However, after getting on the list of successful candidates, are students as successful as they imagined? How do students from different socioeconomic backgrounds differ in their career prospects after graduation? Through in-depth interviews with graduating students from two key universities in Beijing and Shanghai, this book reveals a hidden challenge that college students encounter in the process of going to college: whether they have insight into the "rules of the game" in the university field and master a series of cognitive and practical patterns that are "defaulted" as routine. This book points out that the advantages of family background not only bring strong material support, but also mean the inheritance of a whole set of cultural skills about "going to college", which enables college students from well-off families to seize the initiative in the fierce competition for career opportunities, while those from ordinary families are more likely to miss opportunities. This book also focuses on the important role of a sense of meaning in obtaining career opportunities, and points out that under the current institutional background, internalizing mainstream values ​​and beliefs and expanding the "cultural toolbox" can help college students get out of the dilemma of losing their career goals, so as to make more efficient use of university resources and obtain career opportunities.