@article{14311, keywords = {Class Inequality in College}, author = {Tali Mendelberg and Vittorio M{\'e}rola and Tanika Raychaudhuri and Adam Thal}, title = {When Poor Students Attend Rich Schools: Do Affluent Social Environments Increase or Decrease Participation?}, abstract = {
College is a key pathway to political participation, and lower-income individuals especially stand to benefit from it given their lower
political participation. However, rising inequality makes college disproportionately more accessible to high-income students. One
consequence of inequality is a prevalence of predominantly affluent campuses. Colleges are thus not insulated from the growing
concentration of affluence in American social spaces. We ask how affluent campus spaces affect college{\textquoteright}s ability to equalize political
participation. Predominantly affluent campuses may create participatory norms that especially elevate low-income students{\textquoteright}
participation. Alternatively, they may create affluence-centered social norms that marginalize these students, depressing their