UC Irvine

Sociologists of education have a longstanding interest in studying the relationship between schooling and inequality in society. While we know education matters for who gets ahead, we still know relatively less about the processes and mechanisms behind this relationship. In my dissertation, I focus on higher education as a key site where stratification plays out and examine various ways in which individuals are ranked and sorted relative to one another. Conceptually, I extend insight into the positional (i.e., hierarchical) and relational (i.e., network) dynamics of postsecondary schooling. I draw upon sociological theories relevant to the social stratification, organizations, and social networks literatures. Through both regression-based and social network analyses, my dissertation adds to our understanding of differential sorting into and through the first year of college. In so doing, I shed additional light on how and why students end up at distinct institutions, as well as the causes and consequences of the social networks that emerge once they arrive on campus.