So I am looking at the orientation sessions for Swarthmore for the incoming first-year students http://www.swarthmore.edu/new-students/orientation-tuesday-august-23 and my jaw drops to somewhere around thirty feet below the ground: There is a session that is specifically for first-gen (hmmm . . . OK) and low-income (What the bloomin’. . . ???) students.
In the bad old days, some of the Ivy League schools, including Yale, had a designation for the guys who had to work in the dining commons: “Bursary Boys.” That kind of label has been out the window for decades. Do we still stigmatize students and families who are, um, not “of means”? I was a low-income student in my day, and I can’t imagine donning the Scarlet L tee shirt and strolling into Kohlberg Hall to self-identify as a poor relation to my academic peers! Good grief! What business is any family’s income to any entity except the financial aid office and the family itself?
These are the students most likely to wash out. The school may want to give that group more resource support – there are ins and outs of college life that are more obvious to parents and students from families that aren’t first gen. They may cover topics in that session that are just touched upon in other sessions, and make sure the students get a personal touch introduction to the support services available to them. I also think low income students can feel really out of place at highly ranked schools – making friends at orientation with other 1st gen students or other lower SES may improve retention.
Retention is a big issue at colleges. One of my kids works in higher education consulting, and they do a lot of studies on this topic. Their company sells software to colleges to help identify the students most at risk of dropping out. There are definitely best practices to improve retention, and my guess is that this is the purpose of that session.
This is very common. It’s not a Swarthmore thing. It’s about providing extra resources. My guess is its optional, not mandatory. I noticed they also have separate sessions specifically geared towards students with disabilities/learning issues, athletes and latino/a students but you didn’t mention those. Are you ok with them offering those types of breakout sessions?
Not necessarily most likely to wash out- or they wouldn’t have been accepted. (Not at Swat’s level.) Something in their records and app/supps showed that they do have what it takes. Sometimes, though there are the other issues, not knowing the ropes in the ways we taught our kids, maybe additional financial concerns, how to balance demands,and yes, helping them understand how much support is available, how to use it, etc.
Fortunately, we are not in the “bad old days.” That (potential) stigma was back in my mother’s day. Didn’t see it on my campus and not among my daughters’ peers.
It’s not worded as nicely as it could be. But I doubt they’ll announce to the student body who came or hand out shirts with a scarlet L.
I took a glance at it and saw that the first-gen and low-income is in a single session. I think that is just meant to be inclusive; they don’t want kids to worry about definitions of “first-gen” if they are already starting to feel a bit of culture shock after seeing the “Bed Bath and Beyond” pop-up store where one can get coordinated bedding accessories, and the “laptop setup session” where their fancy new macbook can be put on the campus network
My D2’s school does a three week session summer session on campus for incoming frosh that is primarily for low income &/or first gen (students take a class that is often a failure point for frosh and get it out of the way).
Colleges have been working at this for a long time, and have a lot of programs in place like this.
Many studies are looking at the success gaps at schools below Swat and other top colleges. The link isn’t about elites. The CSUDH 4 year rate looks well under 10% for all starting as freshmen.
OP, to a large extent this initiative is driven by students. A couple of years ago, a committee of low-income students formed the support group Swarthmore Organization for Low-Income Students (SOLIS). Since then, the College has taken various steps to support low-income students. For instance, it recently instituted the Swarthmore Summer Scholars program for incoming students from underprivileged backgrounds. The College also published a list of administrators and faculty members who had similar experiences in college and who can serve as mentors.
