The Challenge of Being Poor at America's Richest Colleges

College Search & Selection
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<p>Interesting article linked below. I think this is a major elephant in the room at many of the wealthiest and elite colleges and it would be interesting for others to share their experiences adjusting to a top school from a low-income or even middle class background.</p>

<p>The</a> Challenge Of Being Poor At America's Richest Colleges - Forbes</p>

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<p>You mean “middle income”, not “middle class”, right? Lots of people around these forums interpret “middle class” as “not getting financial aid”, which would put them in the $200,000+ family income bracket. “Middle income” in the US would either be around $50,000 (median for all households in the US) or around $70,000 (median for households headed by someone age 45-54, typical age for parent of high school senior or college frosh).</p>

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<p>Color me unsympathetic.</p>

<p>I know this will demonstrate my “insensitivity”, but when you’re being given a free ride to a school that some of us will pay $60K to send our kids to, and we’re not millionaires, and your complaint is you feel uncomfortable or that your friends can afford to jet off to Berlin while you’re stuck in Barcelona, I think you’re looking for things to complain about or feel guilty about. Perhaps we should insist the financial aid package start including a choice between a BMW or a Porsche. Plus gas money and free detailing every month.</p>

<p>That said, helping kids out with interview clothes or travel money is a great idea that should be encouraged. Helping them out with indulgent entertainment or feeling guilty they can’t do something most people can’t do is just silly and quite frankly not what getting an education is supposed to be about. What next, homeless people complaining about the lack of brioche at the soup kitchen?</p>

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<p>A high school student is dependent on his or her parents to take him or her to the dentist. And for many poor families around the country, there are no free or low-cost dental options, even for kids.</p>

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<p>I know needy students face challenges in college, but I think this article overstates things. Middle and upper income students aren’t born knowing how to set up a bank account, either. Mine walked into the bank and asked someone.</p>

<p>Asking for a recommendation and making an appointment with a professor are skills these kids should have learned in high school. After all, how did they get LORs for college applications?</p>

<p>Elite colleges have many more resources available for students than less well endowed schools. They often have scholarship money available for things like study abroad and summer research.</p>

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<p>I don’t think the article is very good at describing the problems of students from low-income families who get full rides. I hope some students post about it. I am sure that it’s not just Berlin vs Barcelona.</p>

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<p>Taking care of medical or dental problems, that’s fine, and should also be encouraged. </p>

<p>Sixty years ago, my dad, who grew up in the West Virginia coal fields, was going to Ohio State on the GI bill. Other than the Army, he’d never had dental care in his life. He became a student’s final exam at the dental school, all he had to do was show up and let them work on him very slowly, over a period of weeks. That dental work is still with him after all these years, and in gold. Best dental work he’s ever had done.</p>

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<p>Agreed with Mr. Mom62. Many full-pay families had to (and will continue to) live “poor” for many years in order to save up enough money to pay for the elite college education.</p>

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<p>The other dimension is that some students, rich or poor, have a frugal bias, while others have a spendy bias. The frugal biased students, rich or poor, would probably not be interested in the spendy weekend trips to Berlin, expensive dinners out or clubbing or whatever, and expensive clothes. Such activities would be the domain of the spendy biased students. Probably the students with the most issues would be non-rich but spendy biased students.</p>

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<p>Speaking from a median income bias with two children at an expensive Jesuit college that has been just generous enough with financial aid to suck us in(twice) to their excellent educational system, our children have had their eyes opened to the disparity in opportunity in the American college system. Our freshman son was surprised(shocked) by his roommates who didn’t actually know what work study was. Admittedly, he’s not that familiar with the concept of work either, but he has had an eye opening view to the world of privilege.
D as a senior has also discovered the economic tiers of privilege at a high tuition school. Not complaining at all about the generosity of aid for either child, but they definitely have discovered their is another level of economically elite that exists in the room.
Reality check: born to money makes it easier, more true in the US now than the rest of the world, sad commentary on our our American ideals.</p>

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<p>I can’t link the thread from my iPhone but there’s another thread on this topic in the Parents Forum. Perhaps the mods would like to merge the two?</p>

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I grew up in a below average income family. I wouldn’t say low income, but I’d expect lower than the vast majority at Stanford. I didn’t associate with the article at all. In general, I found Stanford to be very accepting of all backgrounds. I can’t recall ever sensing a division based on family income or even having a good sense of others’ family’s income. This environment made me more accepting as well. I went to high school in an area that was ~95% white and had almost no foreign students. I didn’t think of myself or the school as particularly racist. However, after having a completely different experience in college, I came to see how differently persons in my high school who were a minority or international were treated… things like having a more difficult time joining social groups or generally fitting in. In contrast at Stanford, I didn’t feel like persons with lower income, minorities, or international students were treated differently or had more trouble fitting in (my feelings may or may not have been accurate).</p>

<p>I never had anything close to a $300 textbook, and I never met anyone who talked about jetting off to Budapest or other exotic location. There was one person in my dorm who talked about visiting a family lakehouse in a scenic area. She did this as a way of offering a group trip for anyone interested from the dorm during a holiday break. A lot of people took her up on the offer… I’d expect from a variety of backgrounds. This was a group road trip with a lot of shared food, so a high income was not required.</p>

<p>I did try to save money at times with things like choosing lower cost meals, but didn’t think much of it. The biggest struggle for me was not having a computer. Using shared computing resources made some assignments awkward, particularly for CS classes. Eventually I got a part time job at a local tech research company in Palo Alto, and the first thing I used the extra income for was a computer.</p>

<p>Things like setting up a bank account or asking a TA for help seem like general life skills, rather than things lower income students need to be taught. I’d imagine most students need to figure out a lot of things while living on their own for the first time, regardless of income… including general life decisions, like how much to drink when alcohol is easily available for the first time, or how much to study when pressure from parents is removed. I’d expect the group with the most difficult transition would be international students, not low income.</p>

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<p>I was worried about this transition, coming from a middle income family in the Midwest to Boston on a scholarship. The year before, my neighbor (also Valedictorian her year, IB diploma) had a terrible experience at George Washington Uni where she felt horribly out of place as a scholarship student, and ended up leaving after a semester. But despite some roommates/friends who clearly had waaaaay more money than me, it was a non-issue at my school. How much depends on the individual university?</p>

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<p>This is the original article/letter from the Duke student: [I&lt;/a&gt; came to Duke with an empty wallet | The Chronicle](<a href=“http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2013/11/11/i-came-duke-empty-wallet]I”>http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2013/11/11/i-came-duke-empty-wallet)</p>

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<p>Note that both George Washington and Duke have a low percentage of students on Pell grants at 14%.</p>

<p>[Economic</a> Diversity | Rankings | Top National Universities | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/economic-diversity/spp%2B50/page+5]Economic”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/economic-diversity/spp%2B50/page+5)</p>

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<p>Here’s the other thread, longer than this one though a little snippier ;)</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1585367-article-challenge-being-poor-americas-richest-colleges.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1585367-article-challenge-being-poor-americas-richest-colleges.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;