Article: The challenge of being poor at America's richest colleges

Parents Forum
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<p>I think it’s important to remember that many college students from low-income families are also first-generation college students. They may lack information about how college “works,” and that can be as much of a handicap as a limited budget.</p>

<p>When I started college, my family was doing rather well financially, even though my parents had no education beyond high school. We could afford college, but the college environment was utterly unfamiliar, and I couldn’t go to my parents for guidance. I had to learn everything on my own, and I stumbled sometimes and missed out on opportunities that a more sophisticated student would have take advantage of.</p>

<p>At the same time, my future husband’s family was struggling financially because of family members’ recent serious illnesses. However, theirs was an educated, sophisticated family. Both of his parents went to college, and one had a professional degree as well. They understood the system, but they were hurting for money in a way that my family was not. My future husband also faced challenges in college, but they were different ones from mine. He was able to get guidance on how to work within the system at his university, but he sometimes did not have enough money to take advantage of opportunities that were offered.</p>

<p>Now imagine a student who faces both situations – being a first-generation college student and being broke. I think that student could have a very hard time.</p>

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<p>Just read the entire thread, and find the socio-economic discussions fascinating. </p>

<p>My URM D has applied to 3 Ivy and 10 top-tier institutions this year. She earned a 2150 SAT and 31 ACT without any tutoring; our family income is about $125 k.</p>

<p>That said, she/we have be INUNDATED with financial aid info from all the top schools. Some go so far as to list income ranges and associated annual cost - none of her choices will cost her more than $20 k a year. I say “her” because we have another child in college and she knows we will cover books/travel/clothes etc. but the remaining educational expenses are hers.</p>

<p>I have asked if she is SURE about attending these prestigious institutions, as it will be a new world for her. Coming from a small public high school where only a handful of students have ever applied to top tier I want her to go in with her eyes open - no whining here, lol.</p>

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<p>Having been homeless, upper-middle class, and everything in between at various times in my life, I feel qualified to say that being poor really sucks. Being poor around rich kids sucks even more, and it isn’t because of jealousy over their expensive lifestyles.</p>

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<p>Money most definitely is not a panacea. In the wrong hands it can even be a curse. But in general having enough for one’s needs and more, makes life easier and more convenient.</p>

<p>My kids have enough and are not suffering or whining. However, to name one thing that can make a difference, my kids never had their own car in high school or college. Driving to the high school directly is faster than taking the school bus. An extra 15 minutes twice a day, 5 days a week, and you’ve saved 2.5 hours that can be used for sleep, or EC’s, or studying. If D really needs to go shopping now in college, she can take public transportation to the Target near campus, but the trip will take her twice as long as for the kid who can drive his own car there. (And yes, I am aware that in some locales, public transportation is faster. Not the case here.) That wealthier kid may also, for some purchases, save more time by simply going to the upscale mall even closer to campus, whereas D cannot. This is not a tragedy, it’s just a fact. </p>

<p>I don’t know who all these rich kids are being spoken of who work on campus, but the wealthy ones my kids know did not, unless it’s a professional internship. So again, if you are not putting in 10-15 hours a week on that part-time job, you have more time to sleep, study and earn better grades if you are so motivated. While college admissions officers may take into account a student’s schedule when looking at GPA, it doesn’t seem that grad schools or employers care one whit. And besides, the career office told D to take all jobs of that lesser nature off her resume. So that time outlay working in the dining hall is invisible. </p>

<p>Furthermore, her new college coach gave the team a big lecture on improving performance. Part of it was his uneducated assumption about the sort of student who attends that school, that none of them were destitute and shouldn’t need to work during the term. He especially does not like them doing menial stuff since it could tire them out more and they need to be 100% committed to the team yada yada. He’s not completely off base, because many of the athletes attended elite prep schools like Harvard Westlake.</p>

<p>There are just aspects of campus life at the top schools which assume a certain level of spending money. But they aren’t always obvious unless you live it. Often, they can be circumvented, but it will take more time and energy. It’s not a tragedy, but more like a slow drip that wears you down. And we are not poor, so I can’t imagine what it would be like for a truly poor student.</p>

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<p>Right? What is the mystery here? It is harder to be poor.</p>

<p>Going to an elite college is a big step forward. It may be hard but it’s probably worthwhile. I don’t doubt there are challenges. I don’t see whining on this thread.</p>

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<p>I don’t question your knowledge about this, but I think it is irrelevant to offer it unless you put it in context.</p>

<p>Do you think that being poor around rich kids * as a student at Harvard * sucks even more than being poor?</p>

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<p>I imagine being poor at Harvard is better than being poor at home.</p>

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<p>If we assume that $200,000 becomes $140,000 after income and payroll taxes (see [Tax</a> Calculator 2013-2014 - Free Federal Tax Calculator](<a href=“http://www.taxcalculator.org/]Tax”>http://www.taxcalculator.org/) ), a family living on $70,000 per year would save $70,000 per year. Over 10 years, that is $700,000 (not including interest or investment gains), which is a lot higher than the $20,000 * 4 = $80,000 that one would get from financial aid at Harvard if one had no savings at that income level.</p>

<p>Note that the family in question would not have to dip in to the savings at all to pay list price at Harvard, since they could pay from the otherwise-unspent current income and still put $11,000 per year into savings and investments.</p>

<p>In contrast, the family making $200,000 per year and spending all of it would have to find a way to cut back $40,000 ($45,000 if they did not want their kid to have to work) in order to send the kid to Harvard. Given that spending habits tend to have a ratchet-like property, that seems to be hard for many people to do.</p>

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<p>TheGFG,</p>

<p>I think I remember that your D had the choice of Harvard but chose Stanford, which is in California, where cars are pretty much a necessity. My D at H didn’t have a car; the public transportation was excellent.</p>

<p>One of my D’s worked on campus all 4 years. Apparently her college’s on-campus jobs were not limited to work-study students. My other D was the one who said she could not get an on-campus job as they were reserved for work-study, so she got an off-campus job for two years, but it was not flexible enough for her schedule (like the on-campus jobs are) to enable her to continue working there indefinitely. If your D’s school reserves on-campus jobs for work-study students, then you will not see any full-pay students working them.</p>

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<p>So it’s easier to be poor around rich kids at GW? Or American? </p>

<p>I think it just sucks being poor and poorly understood (e.g., the casual assumption that people have cars, whether or not needed on campus) among rich kids regardless of the college’s rank.</p>

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<p>Given that work-study means that the employer receives a subsidy for the employee’s pay, any work-study eligible employer (like the school itself) will prefer to hire work-study students over other students if possible.</p>

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<p>The reality is that being poor is a challenge everywhere. I’m still stuck on, “Why is this news?”</p>

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<p>SlackerMom,</p>

<p>I used Harvard because it is America’s richest school, and was used in the article in the OP.</p>

<p>Harvard (and many other colleges), has a multi-billion dollar endowment, and as such, it showers its students with amenities and opportunities.</p>

<p>I would hope that poor students could find some pleasure and enjoyment in such an environment, that elevates their lives to a point that having to tolerate being around rich kids isn’t as “sucky” as it is when they are living at home.</p>

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<p>ucbalumnus, your post #209 is so right. unfortunately, not many families see it that way let along putting it into practice.</p>

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<p>"So it’s easier to be poor around rich kids at GW? Or American? "</p>

<p>How many are getting full FA packages at GW and American?</p>

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<p>There is nothing new under the sun, flossy. This is just a discussion some of us are interested in. If it bores you, there’s a solution for that. </p>

<p>When your standard of living is below the average of where you are living, it is harder. If my D goes to a high school where only a few kids own Uggs or smart phones and she doesn’t have either, it’s less of a problem then having neither in her high school where Uggs are the “uniform” and during class teachers actually tell kids they can take out their i-phones and research some topic on the internet.</p>

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<p>No, I’m very interested and mean no disrespect, at all. I think on these boards and in this discussion many posters are being wildly misinterpreted.</p>

<p>Of course, it’s irritating when your peers are going on European ski vacations and you can’t afford a pizza but in the scheme of things it’s probably worth it. And, this is every bit as much of a problem for the kid whose parents have huge loans while a roommates parents haven’t a care in the world about money.</p>

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<p>Thank you so much for sharing that, very inspiring young woman.</p>

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<p>One could just as easily tell a rich kid to be grateful you were born into wealth and shut it.</p>

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<p>To further clarify the social impact, I should point out that attending a school like HYPS is like wearing designer clothing. It’s seen, albeit sometimes inaccurately, as a socio-economic marker. When people hear where my kids went to school, they assume we are rich. They would not assume that if I had said my kids attended Penn State. The disparity between assumption and reality makes this thing harder.</p>

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<p>People misunderstand poverty in this country. Upthread someone is being chided for not feeling sorry for starving children which I didn’t read anywhere and now it’s about Uggs and iPhones. Sigh.</p>