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On a Typology of College Students CSQ

Author(s):
Peterson, Richard E.
Publication Year:
1965
Report Number:
RB-65-09
Source:
ETS Research Bulletin
Document Type:
Report
Page Count:
202
Subject/Key Words:
Classification, College Student Questionnaires (CSQ), Student Characteristics, Student Subcultures, Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Typologies, while they must necessarily oversimplify and perhaps in other ways mutilate human reality, nevertheless represent contrivances that can often lead to new and fruitful understandings of that same reality. Sociologists Burton Clark and Martin Trow have recently suggested a typology of college students--a typology, in their words, of "college student subcultures." This model is comprised of four types to which the names vocational, academic, collegiate, and nonconformist have been affixed. The general purpose of this paper is to outline a variety of apparent characteristics of the four types of students identified by Clark and Trow. The material presented is likely to be broadly meaningful to faculty, administrators, and others having responsibilities for higher education; it will perhaps be of more immediate interest to institutional researchers--particularly to those who have used the College Student Questionnaire (CSQ).

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