Schleef - Thats a good question

Question 1

Individual preferences

Answer 1

Consciously making decisions

1. Looking at individual student preferences – need that degree for the career you want
2. Some people pick that degree because of the intellectual challenge
3. Others think about it as social justice or changing the world (social justice reason)

Rarely include uncertainty or default

Question 2

Parental influence

Answer 2

• Not so much directly
• Subtle hints
• Indirectly in terms of the educational achievements of our parents or their occupational choices
• Influences us
• Obtain similar lifestyles to what they have

Question 3

Social Class

Answer 3

How it appears to be related to the decisions students make when they go to university

Rather than emphasising choice, she is looking at social forces that are bigger than us and influence our choices

Influences our life chances, whether or not we can afford to go to university

SES – we will only look at certain things as being realistic options

Question 4

Cultural capital

Answer 4

Indirectly affects us in terms of our values and beliefs

Our interpersonal skills that will help us be successful in the things that we want to do

How cultural capital is very important, and is one of our social forces that influences us but we are not really aware of it

Question 5

data and methods

Answer 5

Semi-structured interviews with 37 law students and 42 business students
-Prestigious private universities

Question 6

How did it happen that you came to law [or business] school?

Answer 6

Students’ motivations

Education of students’ parents

Occupations of students’ parents

Question 7

Goal

Answer 7

Coded the different responses she gave in a way to understand the key motivations for these students to end up where they are

Wants to see whether or not their parents are transmitting their educational levels or there degree of interest to their parents

Question 8

What factors were important in selecting your intended major/program?

Answer 8

Career
lifestyle
intellectual
altruistic 
parental 
default

Question 9

Career

Answer 9

salary
prestige
good career prospects

Question 10

Lifestyle

Answer 10

reasonable workload, flexibility, fits with my lifestyle

Question 11

intellectual

Answer 11

interesting
challenging work
variety

Question 12

altruistic

Answer 12

help others

make a difference in society

Question 13

Parental

Answer 13

Feel its a good choice

support my choice

Question 14

Default

Answer 14

best of various options

I was admitted to the program

sort of just ended up there

very few women identify with this but more common in male law students

for business students no significant differences

Question 15

Social justice

Answer 15

Higher for women than men

Question 16

How parents may indirectly influence their children

Answer 16

college degree or not

The entire group of professional degrees

In contrast to either some high school, high school, or college

Question 17

Mothers of law students

Answer 17

50% of the law students have a mother who have a professional or university degree

Question 18

Mothers of business students

Answer 18

66% of business students, their mothers have a professional or college degree

Question 19

Fathers of law students s

Answer 19

75% of law school fathers have a professional degree

Question 20

Fathers of business students

Answer 20

83% of business school students fathers have a professional degree

Question 21

Scheleef finds that

Answer 21

you are more likely to have a university degree but much less likely to have a degree to have a degree in what you are intended to get

Her results state that very few of her samples had parents working in related fields

Are they transmitting the notion of having a good education or you need to be in a specific job

Results: what our parents are transmitting to us is the value of education – a middle class value

Go beyond high school and get a degree

In terms of education we are not getting the same type as our parents, but the levels are still there

Question 22

Occupations

Answer 22

Mothers in terms of their occupations is 30% of the law school mothers have a professional or business degree

46% of the business mothers have a professional or business degree

Question 23

Are students investing in their general human capital more so than a specific occupational choice?

Answer 23

Are you here to get some sort of degree that will enable you to get a job

Or here for an occupational choice in mind, get the degree to allow you to get that job

Question 24

Do students carefully and consciously choose their careers?

Answer 24

Do you feel this is your choice and making rational decisions

Or is it more because these things are just sort of happening to you, carrying you along - if so is it because of our family background

Question 25

Is there a large degree of uncertainty and default involved?

Answer 25

She says yes, based on her interview results these law students majors are articulating to her a lot of uncertainty in terms of how they got there

Key reasons that led them to get into those programs

Question 26

Does parental influence directly or indirectly influence students’ choices?

Answer 26

Primarily seems indirect in that our parents are conveying to us the value of having education and having a university degree

Both samples have parents who have university degrees

What they are not influencing as strongly is the specific degree you are getting

Encouraging us to go further than their education levels