Full title: The social life of elite students: early socialization tactics in top business education Research seminar with Anna Tyllström, Associate Professor at Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University and IFFS affiliated researcher. She is an organizational theorist, known for works on lobbying, corporate influence on politics, political consulting, corporate networks, and the construction of expertise. Abstract Elite education fosters elite alumni. Earlier studies indicate that peer networks formed during higher education are essential to elite socialization, and that such peer networks form early on during the course of education. Moreover, the composition of such peer networks can be highly consequential, impacting long-term career outcomes such as pay and position. In this research, we study how students’ early peer socialization plays out during the first months of elite business education. Drawing on structured interviews with students entering high-ranking bachelor programs in business studies, we find that the first few weeks, or days even, at university seem essential to students’ social integration, and we identify four stereotypical socialization tactics, i.e. strategies that constitute separate sets of behavior and thoughts about social life, placed on a continuum between academic and social focus. We also find these tactics to be heavily gendered: while male respondents are over-represented in groups applying super-strategizing and loning tactics, female students tend to crowd in the middle categories of balancing and swotting, working hard to balance academic and social expectations during the first intense months of higher education. As this is a work in progress, spanning several social science disciplines, we would like to use the seminar to brainstorm together around the potential relevance of these findings, and also around framing and outlet.
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