Yale and Southern Connecticut State University may not be too far away, but according to a new study, they are worlds apart.
A newly released book,” Degrees of Inequality,” looks at the socio-economic differences between Yale and SCSU to highlight a growing disparity in higher education.
The book’s author — Ann L. Mullen, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Toronto — based her book off of interview of 50 students from each university.
Mullen initially notes that the two schools have many similarities. They are only separated by two miles, and their racial make-ups are rather similar. Yale is 69 percent white while SCSU is 70 percent.
From there, according to the book, the similarities end.
Degrees of Inequality asserts that Yale’s students tend to have families where both parents went to college and that many Yalies “never actually decided to go to college; it was simply the next step in their lives, one not requiring a rationale.”
Across town, SCSU students tend to come from working class families, according to the study. For many, it seems that SCSU was a conscious choice based on “cost and convenience” — something that was never mentioned by the Yalies when interviewed.
Mullen also claims that Yalies care far less about choosing a specific major.
“I’m getting a diploma with four letters Y-A-L-E on it. I should be able to have the sky be my limit,” one Yale student says in the book.