My research partner and I are both first-generation college students doing our PhDs together, but she's gotten really good at academic performance and code-switching while I still feel like an imposter, and now our advisor treats us completely differently even though we started from the same place. She says I'm 'not trying hard enough' to fit in but it feels like she's becoming someone else entirely.
More people experience this than they realize.
Academic socialization is creating divergent paths of adaptation that threaten their shared identity as outsiders navigating elite spaces.
“Where Are You with Self-concept and how it forms?”
If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.