Title page for ETD etd-04222009-215054 ( Browse

Type of Document

Dissertation

Author

Neimeyer, Bruce Carlton

URN

etd-04222009-215054

Title

AN EXAMINATION OF NATIVE AND IMMIGRANT STUDENTS’ SOCIAL NETWORKING USING THE COLLEGE SEARCH AND SELECTION PROCESS

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Administrative and Policy Studies

School

School of Education

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name	Title
Dr. W. James Jacob	Committee Chair
Dr. Charlene Trovato	Committee Member
Dr. Erik Ness	Committee Member
Dr. John Weidman	Committee Member

Keywords

college selection
cybernetworks
social networking
native
immigrant
college search
students
social capital

Date of Defense

2009-04-14

Availability

unrestricted

Abstract

This dissertation explores the use of formal and informal networks through cyber- and traditional communication methods in the college search and selection process by native and immigrant students to examine various postulates and propositions of social capital theory. In addition, the analysis of cybernetworks used by disadvantaged, college bound immigrant students in the United States furthers our understanding of the equalization of opportunity and/or replication of the social divide found with more traditional social networks.

The research methods consisted of archival data analysis with chat room transcripts; six on-line focus groups of 21 first year students from The City University of New York (CUNY); and one on-line survey distributed to 9,240 CUNY first year students. SPSS and NVivo qualitative analytical software were used to conduct frequency, statistical significance, correlation and linear relationships analyses.

These results confirm the use of a greater variety of formal and informal networks by students. No preference for either the use of formal or informal networks was found among all respondents. However, immigrant students found that formal networks such as guidance counselors, admissions counselors, high school teacher and current college students provided the most useful information compared to their informal networks. Friends as an informal network were the only exception. These findings support the strength-of-weak-ties and strength-of strong-ties postulates. Immigrants show a greater variety of network usage especially through cyber- communication methods. Perhaps as a result, lower SES immigrant students were found to enroll more in four-year CUNY colleges compared to lower SES native students. Lower/middle SES immigrants that used email–mainly with friends– and static college search Web sites had a greater perception than natives of the same SES that their degree would result in their improved SES a finding that challenges the social capital structure postulate. The evidence of the Internets ability to provide equalization of opportunity supports the argument for its more open access in order to address the lack of information among U.S. immigrants.

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