Enchanted adhesion and University aleas: The ambivalent effects of selection at the University

The analysis of students' representations and practices when entering the first year of two University courses with different recruitment methods (Law, and Economics and Management) shows that the selection process does not mechanically constitute an institutional rite. Students' belief in their rightful place at the University seems to be as much, if not more, related to the pedagogical organization of teaching, the modalities of the teacher-student relationship and the academic and social trajectory in which access to the first cycle of university takes place. The establishment of a barrier does not decree a sense of consecration and does not induce, by the simple fact that it allows students to "be there" (at the University), that they have the feeling of "fitting in." In addition, the long time of the University and the rarity of explicit judgments can contribute to the development of a sense of injustice.