[quote=“CU123, post:20, topic:2066014”]
@CU123 Wow, I hope you don’t judge all people you don’t know so harshly! My daughter knows Tony Jack, and from everything I have heard about him from her as well as others that know him, he NEVER was crying about how difficult things were for him. Quite the opposite, he was and is always trying to uplift others through his optimism, while not sugar coating that there are speed bumps along the way for low income students.
@CottonTales Well the article didn’t come across that way. Don’t know him personally so I can only judge the article.
Maybe he’s just saying that there are a lot of things not covered by a full ride scholarship.
Indeed. Such as food on school breaks.
I remember as my freshman year progressed and I decided to visit home less and less. College was less than an hour from home, but by the time Thanksgiving rolled around, I decided to stay on campus rather than go home for the long weekend. I figured I could hang out with a smaller group of those friends who remained on campus, and I could use the quiet time to study and relax. I was surprised to discover that most buildings were shut down for the break, including most of the dining options.
I felt sorry for the international students and the low-income domestic students who lived far away and did not have the money to travel home for the extended Xmas break. Over the Xmas break, all dining options were closed.
The point of the article is that a lot of students struggle in ways that administrators just don’t seem to think about. We should recognize those challenges and try to plan for them.
If students get enough aid (need-based or merit) to attend an elite school I don’t think they should feel any more grateful than the kids whose parents’ high income and assets made it possible for them to compile the academic record needed for acceptance or the budget required to pay the COA, especially when it comes with the expectation that in exchange they should be content not to eat every day.
If I sent my kid to Amherst, he would get no aid and we won’t be able to pay more than full tuition. He’ll have to work part time to pay for housing and won’t have money for any extras, no eating out, no sky trips, no flying to home when he wants, no fancy clothing, may have to skip some meals too. If he really wants to attend a school we can’t afford, there is no way for us to cover it all, even for tuition we may have to withdraw some from 401K or take a home equity loan.
We simply can’t stretch our budget more than that. He’ll have to make sacrifices to make his dreams come true and he’ll have to earn to make ends meet as college and system wouldn’t consider his struggles worthy of help.
I appreciate the case he’s making. There are a million little ways that low income kids struggle at these schools, many of which isolate them and call out their status to their classmates.
Many of these are easily addressed. The schools that have some of these “fixes” in place usually find that although they were put in for the benefit of one group of students, they benefit all students. (Rather than making scholarship students pick up their super discounted tickets to events on campus at a separate table, make all activities open to all students. No stigma, easy participation–That works for everyone!)
Schools are eager to admit students but don’t finish their work if they don’t set them up to be members of the community. It’s like they are invited to the party but aren’t asked to dance.
He also acknowledges that poor kids who were scholarship students at high end prep schools (the privileged poor) do not face the same challenges as poor kids from really disadvantaged schools. While they share some struggles, the first group understanding the landscape and how to work it.)
I am grateful that he is advocating for students.
And got a PhD from Harvard, and is a professor at Harvard. I would say that Amherst’s faith in him paid off.
These articles always seem to assume that financial struggles are the sole definition of difficulties humans can face.
The rich white male that is always last on the concern list, even he may have gender confusion, sexuality concerns, depression, suicide, abuse too.
One never knows.
The single parent child may have one less parent. But the two parent child can be surrounded by hate, alcoholism and abuse. Who says that it’s automatically better.
What is important to one person may not be for all.
If the author was fully loved, is his lack of spring break worse than a lonely kid with no one wanting them home for break. So here’s the credit card kid.
I just think the dividing and ranking of difficulty presupposes knowledge of the personal experiences of others.
And it would be interesting to hear how the authors hardship stack ranks to the teen from a Calcutta neighborhood or afghan woman or Venezuelan family.
Or Youngstown Ohio and trying to find work. Or the poor countryside of a European nation. Try the Caribbean. Cuba etc.
I think they would think he was the luckiest person in the world, comparatively.
My closest college friend came from a family that lived far below the poverty line (ps perfect sat scores from a crappy public highschool). She worked a campus job and sent money home to her family from that job.
She never spent a break stuck on campus alone because she always had people to take her home with them or plan trips where everyone pitched in and her share was almost nothing. In fact, most of the upper middle class kids I knew in college took at least one, if not two stragglers, home on breaks. I thought that was standard.
The culture shock was immense for her. She had barely ever eaten fruits or vegetables because the money ran out mid month and after that it was rice and beans. She jokes that I made her a snob because I “taught her” how to survive in the upper middle class world of elite colleges.
I think there’s a fine line in articles like this. How much is he complaining vs bringing light to issues some of us might never have been aware of.
Bingo.