Extracurricular activities as a means of effectively maintained inequality

Beginning at an early age, parents use extracurricular activities to build various forms of capital in their children. Parents engage in the pattern for the benefit of their children. As children grow older, extracurricular activities (EAs) become a method of effectively maintained inequality (EMI) because participation in EAs can lead to attending more selective universities and receiving merit-based aid. This dissertation contains two studies using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. The first study analyzes the high school, college, and early adult outcomes of the Renaissance student. Renaissance students are cultivated for excellence in academics, arts, and athletics. The study uses twelfth-grade participation in academic clubs and honor societies, performing arts, and varsity athletics to define a Renaissance student. Using a series of multilevel analyses with student, familial, and school control measurements, Renaissance students hold advantages over their peers in high school GPA, AP/IB courses completed, post-secondary institutional selectivity, time to college graduation, collegiate athletic participation, and early adulthood personal socioeconomic status. The second study uses theories of the winner-takes-all high school and EMI in examining how high schools potentially stratify opportunities to participate or hold leadership positions in ten EA areas. The study reveals the most significant support for the winner-takes-all hypothesis in academic honor societies while finding school-level aptitude lowers the likelihood of participating in newspaper/yearbook and student government. Students attending affluent schools are more likely to participate in hobby and service clubs, but less likely to participate in drama.