What it's like to be poor in an Ivy League(or any elite/respectable private college)

This thread is beginning to give me anxiety over whether I am “well-dressed” enough or not.

Scouts mom, ?? I think you’re misreading my post. My whole point is that one is neither inferior nor superior by virtue of having money.

I do believe many make this way more complicated than necessary. Someone is either a decent/good person or they are not, nothing else should matter.

Note that different public universities have different ranges of SES diversity (as do different private universities, of course).

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/economic-diversity-among-top-ranked-schools has a list that includes two state flagships, one with 36% Pell grant recipients and the other with 13% Pell grant recipients.

The presence of Pells isn’t wgat I’m referring to. It’s the presence of high incone people. A school can have both types. You don’t think there aren’t PLENTY of wealthy North Shore kids trotting off to U of Illinois every year?

You don’t think there aren’t plenty of upper incone STL and KC kids at Mizzou and Kansas?

I don’t think anyone really cares whether you are well dressed or not.

Why don’t you do some research and report back. You maybe adding some value here.

Even Tom Cruise almost ended up at UIUC at the end of Risky Business. The Horror.

oldfort hit it on the head with post #94 paragraph one. (Sorry don’t know how to use the quote feature.) There is a big difference in a student’s social budget if they attend Grinnell in Iowa, or Yale and hit the NYC clubs on the weekend.

There are two different issues here. There are those students on full aid who are so poor and come from backgrounds such that they can’t afford (or don’t know how) to access basic school resources like counseling or asking for help. Or they can’t afford to eat when the dining halls are closed during breaks. These are real problems that I think the schools need to address.

On the other side, there is feeling inferior because of a lack of experiences, or not having certain material things, or not being able to do everything one’s classmates are doing. All but the wealthy may experience this feeling to an extent.
My D is full pay at a private LAC and we are upper middle class, yet she has occasionally experienced this feeling. I pointed out to D that she doesn’t think she is better than those with less money, so she shouldn’t project snobbishnes onto those who have more money. Like others have mentioned, it really comes down to self-confidence and being proud of who you are and where you come from.

“Even Tom Cruise almost ended up at UIUC at the end of Risky Business. The Horror.”
Yes that’s the whole point. Plenty of rich North shore kids at a state flagship.

Yes, I know. I thought injecting a little humor in this thread might help a class integration issue that’s been stretching back for several decades now.

Exactly. These are the students addressed in the article and in the organizations and networks that these students are forming.

I’m sorry, but I can’t draw any conclusions based on information that limited and selective.

The wealthiest person I knew in school? Sociology major.
My first business partners? Two sociology majors and an engineer.

What makes me feel like the issue is a bit overblown is, these students at elite Ivies are SO smart, and these colleges have SO many student services, it’s a bit hard to believe that figuring out how to get help is all that hard or takes all that long. But maybe that is my “privilege” talking.

Hunh. Interesting theory. I wonder if it is correct.

Who decides on this condition of decency and goodness (or not)?

Because envy is big business. It keeps many a public agency in business. It also allows these institutions to justify under the ‘because you have so much and because you owe it under a social justice’ label to charge nothing to one customer and 65K to another. Because pointing out the horror of financial inequality between A and B makes the pointer C feel kind and loving. Oh, and yes, because C’s job depends on it. Fueling envy and dislike of the !%, or 2% or 5%, or whatever the currently correct PC cutoff, is big big big business.

Of course they aren’t.
It’s how they spend it that matters.

Then why does everyone on CC keep mentioning it, including the prestige of the labels found on folks clothing and handbags?

It really isn’t that complicated. Like my love for animals and children, what you see is what you get they are either sweet and friendly or they are not. I will take simple and honest over sophisticated and complicated every day of the week.
Who would want to be friends with someone if the need to impress them was part of the deal?