<p>Yes , i thought she might be first gen college from a disadvantaged background because of the program where you said she met her friends.</p>
<p>My mom helped run such a program, and I remember how intimidated the students were by aspects if college and middle class life that I took for granted.</p>
<p>Even sharing a room with just one person may seem luxurious to such students.</p>
<p>Reading the OP’s other threads confirmed my impression that her complaints are due to a class difference. It also seems that there are other cultural differences.</p>
<p>The OP moved to the U.S. less than 2 years ago, and her parents work for her Asian country’s consulate. The OP has had internships at that consulate and at an architecture firm.</p>
<p>Her background seems highly sophisticated and more than likely the things that she has done are intimidating to her roommate and the OP probably is condescending toward her roommate, not realizing that to get to a top public, the roommate must have a lot of brains and guts to overcome challenges the OP can’t imagine.</p>
<p>I have taught students who participated in special programs to help disadvantaged students adjust to college. Most came from single parent homes, and that single parent may have been their grandmother. Many didn’t even know who their fathers were or if they knew who their father was, he was in jail or had been murdered.</p>
<p>Some were the only people in their neighborhoods to go to college. Some were the first in their families to graduate from high school. They came from high schools in which it was considered a great achievement to graduate from high school.</p>
<p>Some were working jobs and sending part of their money home to help support their siblings.</p>
<p>Instead of having family who encouraged the college students’ aspirations, their family may have made fun of them for wanting to become educated.</p>
<p>I think that if the OP took the time to get to know her roommate, the OP might be inspired and make a lifelong friend. The OP also may have more realization about how lucky and privileged she herself has been. She also may realize how condescending she has been to her roommate.</p>
<p>For instance, once I took a group of top college students on a trip to D.C. All but one came from a privileged background. I was surprised that most of the students frequently were making fun of people and things they considered “ghetto.”</p>
<p>The one student who didn’t come from a privileged background did come from the ghetto and dressed in flashier way than did the other students, and lacked their polished manners. My heart broke for how hard it must have been for her to her her peers constantly making fun of people who were like herself.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, she had overcome challenges that would have bested most of us. Her mother was mentally ill, and had died when the student was very young. The student didn’t know who her father was, and would never know because apparently her mother had been quite promiscuous. The student had been raised by a grandmother who died while the student was in high school. The student literally was the first in her family to go to college, and was working jobs and had taken out enormous loans to go to that public university.</p>
<p>I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for her to hear the things that students routinely chat about – how their parents will come for special events at the college; their summer vacations, the allowances their parents give them, how their college rooms are small and shabby, etc. It only must have added to her struggles to also hear her peers making fun of things they considered to be “ghetto.”</p>