Thirty-five years ago while teaching in a pioneering program for 1st gens at Cornell, I heard a lecture by Prof. Al Bernstein, welcoming the students and saying he was glad to see so many races represented " because when I got to Cornell in 1949 there were only two races: white people and Jews." The struggles are real, but not new. One of the hardest things 1st gens face is not at school but at home, where, as they learn their new college world, they are often treated by family and friends as class and/or race "traitors," and (in the case of yong orthodox jews) as apostates, emotionally punished for going over to the "white world." They are caught in a vise, trapped between the very different expextations of two worlds. Colleges can help on the school front, but there will still be pain when ( and if) they go home again.
Glad the students are ready to help each other with that one, because it is the higher hurdle.
Glad the students are ready to help each other with that one, because it is the higher hurdle.
5
" I got three sons their all went to college. My older one has a Bachelor Degree from NYU.POLY (Electrical Engineering). Also Degree from Umass) Now he is doing a Master. And work for (GD. Nuclear Propulsion). His Wife is also a (Ingineer She work as a Superviser at GD).My second one has Degree in (Business Administration) from (CUNY) He's doing a Master and also work for (CUNY).. My younger is in (Vanderbilt University) .He going to Graduate next year with a Degree (Biomedical Ingenieering) he also work as (Teacher's Assistant in Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt).I never went to College, when I came to this Country my Father told me. You have to work there to many people in the family to feed. And we were very poor and still poor. But we passed the "torch" to my Sons!. My Wife and I feel very proud of Ours Sons. Because not matter what the adversity were. We put our Sons Education first. " The flawers that are blooms in adversity, are the most rare and beautiful of them all!..Sorry for the misspelling.
14
Some commenters have mentioned the TRIO programs as having been overlooked by the author. But the TRIO programs, as far as I understand them, fund programs for serving students whose families have incomes below 150 percent of the official poverty level as established each year by the US Dept of Health and Human Services. This low-income limitation means that the programs cannot serve a large number of students who come from working class families with incomes that, although above the 150 percent poverty level, are no where near enough to help their children attend college or to have the types of experiences that wealthier families can afford. A working class family where both parents work may be able to cobble together an income well-above poverty level but in today's economy will probably have put most of that money toward being able to afford a modest home -- not toward expensive vacations or perks for their kids. That is the demographic where many of these first gen kids come from and that need the help that these newer first gen campus programs can serve. The TRIO programs don't address that need.
3
I so wish there had been resources like these (or even the awareness that there might be a need for them) when I was a first gen college student on full scholarship (1966-70). Although not an Ivy League school, my college was prestigious and attended primarily by well-to-do students. I found out about social class at college, and it was far from a happy experience.
What people may not realize is that the difficulties of that environment are perpetuated after graduation when one’s education gives entre to jobs and social situations where there still are problems fitting in. Just because one has a high level of educational attainment (which in my case included Phi Beta Kappa and a M.A. degree from Columbia) doesn’t mean that one is equipped in other areas to successfully negotiate the challenges of interacting with people from more privileged backgrounds on the job, socially and in romantic relationships.
Sometimes I think my life would have been a lot happier if I had gone to a nearby state school with people more like me.
What people may not realize is that the difficulties of that environment are perpetuated after graduation when one’s education gives entre to jobs and social situations where there still are problems fitting in. Just because one has a high level of educational attainment (which in my case included Phi Beta Kappa and a M.A. degree from Columbia) doesn’t mean that one is equipped in other areas to successfully negotiate the challenges of interacting with people from more privileged backgrounds on the job, socially and in romantic relationships.
Sometimes I think my life would have been a lot happier if I had gone to a nearby state school with people more like me.
7
This parallels my experience exactly during the early 70s at University of Rochester in upstate NY. Where you choose to go to college sets the stage of the rest of your life, both personally and professionally. Feeling competent increases your chances of success, but it is hard to feel competent when the social status of everyone around you is so elevated compared to your own status, even if you are able to do well academically. It is like they are speaking a different language, not just with each other but with the professors, instructors and advisers. And the ignorance of one's parents, the ones who should be your most trusted advisers, cannot be understated. Not to blame them but my own parents were clueless about anything to do with college. I don't know what SUNY campuses are like now, but I often think I would have been happier at one of the SUNY colleges in the 1970s that I turned down in order to go to the private UofR. That's where most of the college-bound kids in my boomer public high school class went who did not get scholarships to a private school like I did. They were my peers, not the prep school kids at UR. That is why this article is so encouraging -- the first generation students really need to reach out and help each other.
6
"That makes spring break difficult, which is why he considers it a victory that, after being pressed, administrators kept two dining halls open last month, for the first time, in recognition that not all students can leave."
This may sound like a trivial thing, but I remember my years as a Yale undergrad who could not afford to leave campus during the week-long Thanksgiving and spring breaks. Ordinarily I ate in the dining hall (the mandatory full meal plans at some of the Ivies are a blessing for less-well-off students), but during those days, alone on what felt like a completely deserted campus, I heated cans of Spaghetti-Os in a hot pot day after day.
It takes a surprisingly long time to heat up Spaghetti-Os in a hot pot.
This may sound like a trivial thing, but I remember my years as a Yale undergrad who could not afford to leave campus during the week-long Thanksgiving and spring breaks. Ordinarily I ate in the dining hall (the mandatory full meal plans at some of the Ivies are a blessing for less-well-off students), but during those days, alone on what felt like a completely deserted campus, I heated cans of Spaghetti-Os in a hot pot day after day.
It takes a surprisingly long time to heat up Spaghetti-Os in a hot pot.
8
I wish most schools had ethnic cultural centers or program dedicated to serve minorities who are first gen students. That's why I chose to go to a large public university that put actual effort into increasing diversity on campus.
3
I never felt shunned as a first generation undergrad at Penn (C'05). But I noticed that the percentage of first-gen students thinned out most in grad school (a different Ivy). After a sociology PhD, I am hyper aware of these inequalities, but non-Ivy schools where most first-gen students are struggling to figure out library access, course packets, and meal plans. I agree with other commentators, ny times should cover a wide swath of education news not just the evil eight.
5
Income inequality on an Ivy campus? Really?
1
I applaud the NYT article highlighting the struggles faced by first generation college students. I am, however, disappointed that not once throughout this article was there reference made to the fact that there are currently programs in place on campuses across the United States that assist these very students in their pursuit of a successful education. These federally funded programs are TRIO programs and have been assisting students who are first generation, low income or students with disabilities for 50 years. TRIO programs work by providing services that help students overcome barriers and achieve academic success. As a TRIO Director I have seen first- hand the difference that the personal support and educational services offered by committed staff can make in a student’s life. Hopefully, the Times will give TRIO programs an opportunity to shine in a future article.
4
This is a great article, but I thought this part was somewhat unclear:
"While the number has ticked up as college-going has increased over all, the proportion has actually declined from 40 years ago, when 38 percent were first generation, according to the annual U.C.L.A. survey."
Only a relatively small percentage of US high school grads went to college 40+ years ago. That percentage increased significantly over the last 20-30 years (i.e., many more people of my parents' generation have completed at least some college, compared to my grandparents' generation-- I'm 34).
Is the reported decrease in first-gen college students just a reflection of that societal trend towards wider college attendance, or are there other factors involved? Are low-income high school grads really losing ground now, compared to 40 years ago, or are there just more low-income parents who've been to college?
"While the number has ticked up as college-going has increased over all, the proportion has actually declined from 40 years ago, when 38 percent were first generation, according to the annual U.C.L.A. survey."
Only a relatively small percentage of US high school grads went to college 40+ years ago. That percentage increased significantly over the last 20-30 years (i.e., many more people of my parents' generation have completed at least some college, compared to my grandparents' generation-- I'm 34).
Is the reported decrease in first-gen college students just a reflection of that societal trend towards wider college attendance, or are there other factors involved? Are low-income high school grads really losing ground now, compared to 40 years ago, or are there just more low-income parents who've been to college?
2
These poor youngsters need to know their enemy. The same that gamed the system to rob them and their parents. These youngsters seem way too nice. A robust and seething anger directed at their privileged betters is an essential first step.
2
As a 1st generation college student at a prestigious liberal arts college more than 20 years ago, I remember vividly feeling out of my depth. College was a mystery and learning the language of how to succeed was a challenge that I struggled with alone. Calling home did not help as there was no one to advise me about how to navigate college life.
The concept of office hours and the importance of regularly connecting with my professors were not part of college orientation. In my opinion, they should have been required topics. For everyone. I felt ashamed to ask for help and thought that asking would mean that I wasn't very smart. Ultimately, I learned that asking for help really did make things easier, a lot easier.
However, it would have been a great source of strength to be able to meet other 1st generation students starting from the first week of school. There are many aspects of college, whether at an elite institution or public institution, which administrators falsely assume everyone knows. The reality is that students who are 1st gens don't know and they are often too afraid to ask for help.
I applaud the students in this article for their initiative in creating a community with others who have the same experiences. Hopefully, more college administrators and professors - not just at the elite schools - will read this article. They can cultivate a better experience simply by recognizing that not everyone in college has the same background. It matters.
The concept of office hours and the importance of regularly connecting with my professors were not part of college orientation. In my opinion, they should have been required topics. For everyone. I felt ashamed to ask for help and thought that asking would mean that I wasn't very smart. Ultimately, I learned that asking for help really did make things easier, a lot easier.
However, it would have been a great source of strength to be able to meet other 1st generation students starting from the first week of school. There are many aspects of college, whether at an elite institution or public institution, which administrators falsely assume everyone knows. The reality is that students who are 1st gens don't know and they are often too afraid to ask for help.
I applaud the students in this article for their initiative in creating a community with others who have the same experiences. Hopefully, more college administrators and professors - not just at the elite schools - will read this article. They can cultivate a better experience simply by recognizing that not everyone in college has the same background. It matters.
10
Very well said-- I agree with all of that.
1
I'm a little concerned about the major of the kid attending Yale. A B.A. in art history may not be the most prudent choice to rising up from a poor background. I hope he has plans to going to graduate school in a STEM field.
4
I'm an avid NYT reader and subscriber, but I don't think I've ever posted a comment until tonight. I felt so moved reading this article. This is me! My mum left school at 15 with the bare minimum of qualifications and, as a single parent of three kids, worked many jobs to support us. In turn, we worked many jobs to put ourselves through college and grad school--all three of us have one graduate degree and I have two, and soon three as I'll have a PhD shortly. I connect deeply with so many of the experiences articulated by the students above. And then I read this inane comment. Just because someone is a student from a low income background does not mean they should not be encouraged to play to their strengths and interests. It does not mean they should limit their career paths. Careers in the arts and humanities are not and should not be for those from secure socio-economic backgrounds. On the contrary, if art and culture form part of the bedrock of our shared humanity then we need people of ALL stripes in this field. I'm glad I didn't carry your perspective into my university career. As a kid who didn't visit a museum until someone else's parent took me aged 16, I now have three degrees in Art History and soon a PhD and an intensely fulfilling and successful career-I've worked at the Guggenheim, the Met, and now MoMA. To the kid studying Art History--and all other first gen-ers--go for it!
11
You needn't concern troll his major. Coming out of Yale as an art history major he can get a job on Wall Street or as a consultant if he wants. He can also go to law school, med school, business school, etc.
The rules of majors dictating your job prospects don't apply to someone graduating from and Ivy and plenty of my classmates (at Harvard) have done just fine with art history or other supposedly "frivoulous" majors/concentrations. One thing that they learn is that school can be about love of learning.
The rules of majors dictating your job prospects don't apply to someone graduating from and Ivy and plenty of my classmates (at Harvard) have done just fine with art history or other supposedly "frivoulous" majors/concentrations. One thing that they learn is that school can be about love of learning.
10
Look, nobody is trying to discount these kids' experiences. It's just not practical to have Art History as a major. Congrats on your achievements in that field, but your experience does not reflect the experiences of most people with that major. I hope you have a job lined up with that PhD because in the current academic climate, you're going to need all the luck in the world.
2
TRiO programs, including: Upward Bound, Talent Search, Student Support Services and others have been providing First Gen students the support they need to get to and through a college degree.
I echo the earlier comment, "I am shocked and disheartened to see not one mention of the seminal work that TRIO programs nationwide have been doing with this population for the past 50 years. Programs like Upward Bound and Educational Talent Search have been guiding and preparing talented low-income and first-generation young people for ivies and college at every level since the mid-60s. And Student Support Services programs help those very same students adjust to and make the most of their college experience. Furthermore, the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate programs have helped many thousands of these same students go on to earn graduate degrees. Together they have made the difference for literally millions of first-gen students in higher education."
As an Upward Bound Director and Low Income/First Gen graduate of Emerson College, Boston, MA, I get "it", I mentor "it", and I data track "it". The article ignores the 50 years of success of TRiO and appears to have found "something new." I invite the author to step into the light. "It" has been shining for 50 years.
I echo the earlier comment, "I am shocked and disheartened to see not one mention of the seminal work that TRIO programs nationwide have been doing with this population for the past 50 years. Programs like Upward Bound and Educational Talent Search have been guiding and preparing talented low-income and first-generation young people for ivies and college at every level since the mid-60s. And Student Support Services programs help those very same students adjust to and make the most of their college experience. Furthermore, the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate programs have helped many thousands of these same students go on to earn graduate degrees. Together they have made the difference for literally millions of first-gen students in higher education."
As an Upward Bound Director and Low Income/First Gen graduate of Emerson College, Boston, MA, I get "it", I mentor "it", and I data track "it". The article ignores the 50 years of success of TRiO and appears to have found "something new." I invite the author to step into the light. "It" has been shining for 50 years.
5
I'd like to add to the comments concerning TRIO programs which serve those who are designated as low-income, first-generation.... In addition to Upward Bound, Educational Talent Search and Student Support Services, there is another TRIO program which assists adults, 18 and older in completing their GED, guide them through the process of enrolling into college and completing the online financial-aid application. There are 128 Educational Opportunity Centers (EOC) around the U.S. which provide academic counseling and advice, financial and economic literacy, as well as career assessment and soft skills needed to move forward in their careers. We also acquaint the community with higher education opportunities.
It is my belief, that when parents enroll in college, they set an example for their children to do so.
Adults go to college...EOC can help!
Cyndi Harrelson
President
National Educational Opportunity Centers Association
Executive Board
It is my belief, that when parents enroll in college, they set an example for their children to do so.
Adults go to college...EOC can help!
Cyndi Harrelson
President
National Educational Opportunity Centers Association
Executive Board
1
The author notes that 1st gen cuts across racial and ethnic lines. But one group that is largely absent from the discussion is the awkward situation that lower-income white students find themselves in. Because they can look superficially on the outside just like most of the wealthy students (since they are mostly, but of course not all, white), and are less likely to be immigrants or the children of recent immigrants, they might find it harder to connect with others of similar background. They can be pretty invisible -- that is why an outreach program like that described in the article would help. I'm not suggesting that we assume that all non-white students are struggling with first gen problems -- surely they are not. With increasing international enrollment from wealthy non-US citizens at US colleges there are probably plenty of wealthy non-white students on campus. But that white lower income student can get just as alienated in college as their non-white counterparts and could be in as much need of a program like the article describes as any other first generation student. It really is more of a class issue rather than a racial or ethnic issue than this article would lead you to believe.
6
Did you watch the video?
I really think America as a nation gives people so many opportunities. Inter-generational mobility is a glorious things. Gratefulness for the opportunities that it provides young people from different backgrounds.
3
The US doesn't actually score that highly on international rankings of social mobility. The Horatio Alger rags-to-riches story has always been more of a myth than a reality in this country.
These kids are clearly great people and I wish them nothing but the very best in their future careers, but they're statistical outliers-- they make up a rather small percentage of US college students.
These kids are clearly great people and I wish them nothing but the very best in their future careers, but they're statistical outliers-- they make up a rather small percentage of US college students.
4
As a "First Generation student" myself, I share a lot of these same feelings that the students speak of. I definitely feel out of the mix at college when my friends talk about their father's new BMW or spending time at the country club during the summer. I grew up in an area that is percieved as either ghetto or rural, which is not like my college friends from closer to the city.
Yet just like the article, I struggle to even talk to my friends back at home now. I'm an engineering student at a private college where as i have friends at the community college back home. Explaining what I'm learning to my friends and family back home always ends up with alot of head nodding and fake smiles. I have been working since I was 14 and attend college on scholarships, yet I am often perceived as now being "arrogant and privileged."
With all this being said, blaming your lack of yacht trips as your excuse for struggling to make friends or struggling academically is just idiotic. If your smart enough to get into these Ivy League colleges, you should be smart enough to know how office hours work and how to network and interact with your professors and fellow students to make friends.
Yet just like the article, I struggle to even talk to my friends back at home now. I'm an engineering student at a private college where as i have friends at the community college back home. Explaining what I'm learning to my friends and family back home always ends up with alot of head nodding and fake smiles. I have been working since I was 14 and attend college on scholarships, yet I am often perceived as now being "arrogant and privileged."
With all this being said, blaming your lack of yacht trips as your excuse for struggling to make friends or struggling academically is just idiotic. If your smart enough to get into these Ivy League colleges, you should be smart enough to know how office hours work and how to network and interact with your professors and fellow students to make friends.
11
I'm conflicted. I was a first gen college kid 40 years ago, & naive about class and economic status. I didn't realize that being rich or upper middle class wasn't just about money. It's about the self confidence and security that money can provide. Maybe I was better off not dwelling on it then, but I recall feeling embarrassed when I had to decline to take part in some event/activity because I couldn't afford it. I'd make up an excuse that probably made them think I was anti-social. It didn't occur to them that money could be a problem, and it didn't occur to me that money could ever not be part of the equation.
For me, the first gen experience that crystallized this divide of class and culture came as I was getting ready to graduate. Anxious about graduating into a weak job market, I signed up for a series of workshops given by the career office. The first session, the counselor reminded us to make sure to mention that junior year abroad or, indeed, any foreign travel, and point out how it had broadened our experience. Then he told us to stay away from the want ads because more people are hired through connections than through the ads. For the next session, he told us to get our parents' Christmas card list and use it as a starting point to explore the "hidden job market" where, he assured us, most of the good jobs were. I was shocked & demoralized when I realized he was right. Starting out on 3rd base makes it more likely you'll score a run. No much has changed.
For me, the first gen experience that crystallized this divide of class and culture came as I was getting ready to graduate. Anxious about graduating into a weak job market, I signed up for a series of workshops given by the career office. The first session, the counselor reminded us to make sure to mention that junior year abroad or, indeed, any foreign travel, and point out how it had broadened our experience. Then he told us to stay away from the want ads because more people are hired through connections than through the ads. For the next session, he told us to get our parents' Christmas card list and use it as a starting point to explore the "hidden job market" where, he assured us, most of the good jobs were. I was shocked & demoralized when I realized he was right. Starting out on 3rd base makes it more likely you'll score a run. No much has changed.
15
For what it's worth, first-generation students aren't the only ones who find elite privilege to be a culture shock. I'm much more accurately described as "upper middle class" than poor -- my dad has a graduate degree and my sister went to an Ivy before I ended up at Northwestern; I can't pretend I struggled to afford $15 class outings. But my dad funded his education with an ROTC scholarship and I went to a public high school with 3,000 kids 15 minutes from the border in California. In other words, I haven't had the experience of Manuel Contreras from this story, getting blank stares from undocumented uncles while talking about immigration history and wondering if I fit in at home as I felt stuck between two worlds. But having gone to high school with people like Manuel, I still felt out of place the first time I encountered people who talked about international vacations as if they were a given, or who could afford unpaid internships to boost their resume each summer without stockpiling money from a work-study job first.
It's true that on some level measuring up to peers on matters like these is superficial posturing, that once admitted students all get the same education from the same institution and that's their opportunity to alleviate resource imbalances. But the point that at 19 or 20 not everyone has the maturity to figure that out when confronted with a situation where some seem to innately know about connections others don't even know how or where to start to find.
It's true that on some level measuring up to peers on matters like these is superficial posturing, that once admitted students all get the same education from the same institution and that's their opportunity to alleviate resource imbalances. But the point that at 19 or 20 not everyone has the maturity to figure that out when confronted with a situation where some seem to innately know about connections others don't even know how or where to start to find.
27
There really is no end to the need that liberals and universities have to create yet another group of professional victims. You get the feeling from the article that 2015 is the first year we have ever had first generation students attend college - it has never happened before. I suspect there will now be a whole cottage industry of t-shirts, books, conferences, speakers, organizations, mentors catering to this.
Come to think of it, I will create my own sub group of "1st Generation students whose parents completed SOME college" but didn't graduate.
Come to think of it, I will create my own sub group of "1st Generation students whose parents completed SOME college" but didn't graduate.
4
"You get the feeling from the article that 2015 is the first year we have ever had first generation students attend college"
Of course that's not the case, but in past years, many otherwise smart and qualified students dropped out of college because they lacked this kind of basic support. Plenty of people in past generations probably would've loved the opportunity to get this kind of assistance in a new and bewildering environment.
Offering such programs is a matter of common sense and basic empathy, and has absolutely nothing to do with "professional victimhood". I really don't understand the thought process behind comments like this, other than perhaps sheer mean-spiritedness.
Of course that's not the case, but in past years, many otherwise smart and qualified students dropped out of college because they lacked this kind of basic support. Plenty of people in past generations probably would've loved the opportunity to get this kind of assistance in a new and bewildering environment.
Offering such programs is a matter of common sense and basic empathy, and has absolutely nothing to do with "professional victimhood". I really don't understand the thought process behind comments like this, other than perhaps sheer mean-spiritedness.
8
CNNNNC CT Yesterday
"They are smarter and work harder and have overcome disadvantages. That should be celebrated."
That should be celebrated, if it were all true. What I see, in the state I work in, are first-gens getting preference over much more qualified students. I'm talking a 1390 SAT gaining admittance over a 1950 SAT, a 15 ACT gaining admittance over a 28 ACT, and on and on and on. I've seen it occur in many different schools (I have access). I'm sure lots of high school administrators could tell similar stories, but my guess is that the general public has no idea that this level of accommodation is being extended. I understand that there are often extenuating circumstances, but isn't it possible that we're attributing a little too much weight to the first-gen experience?
"They are smarter and work harder and have overcome disadvantages. That should be celebrated."
That should be celebrated, if it were all true. What I see, in the state I work in, are first-gens getting preference over much more qualified students. I'm talking a 1390 SAT gaining admittance over a 1950 SAT, a 15 ACT gaining admittance over a 28 ACT, and on and on and on. I've seen it occur in many different schools (I have access). I'm sure lots of high school administrators could tell similar stories, but my guess is that the general public has no idea that this level of accommodation is being extended. I understand that there are often extenuating circumstances, but isn't it possible that we're attributing a little too much weight to the first-gen experience?
8
Or maybe we're attributing too much weight to standardized test scores.
Those scores don't necessarily tell a college admissions office anything but how much money the student's family can spend on private tutoring and test prep.
Those scores don't necessarily tell a college admissions office anything but how much money the student's family can spend on private tutoring and test prep.
4
While I'm beyond tired of the NY Times fixation with the "Ivy League" whenever these kinds of issues are discussed, I can absolutely relate to the issues presented. I too am a first-generation college graduate, and attended a very expensive, very selective university a number of years ago. One incident that stands out for me as I recall my past is that one of my fellow students - a child of a surgeon - wrote a long editorial tome in the student newspaper when I was a senior (presumably as her parting shot to the graduating class), where she focused on that fact that "undeserving" financial aid students were getting all of the cream work-study jobs on campus, and the scraps - whatever few jobs there might have been - were left for people like her (whose parents were paying full freight). To suggest that - as someone who had to work every semester in college, had to work two jobs each summer, could not even entertain the idea of study abroad (because it would have abrogated my financial aid), had to graduate in four years (same financial aid quandary) - I was "underserving," made my blood boil then as much as having to recall it now.
8
I am who I am today because of what I did not have when I went to college. I never saw myself as a victim, I saw myself as a survivor. I'm sure most of these kids do too.
3
Sure. But "survivors" can also benefit from these types of supportive programs, and from having similarly situated peers to talk to.
2
15 years after graduating as a 1stGen this is the 1st time I come across and article that externalizes the thoughts and challenges of that experience in such an accurate way. During college it never occurred to me that my self-sufficiency and expectation of getting it done because that’s what I needed and my parents hoped and worked so hard to provide was actually hurting me, I did feel that asking for help would be a failure. Now I know the solution is more organic, as Cornell West points out, the stages of development are the “me against the world, us selected few against the world, followed by we the world”.
Hang in there 1stGen’s. Things will get better, not only after college but when you are still in college.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
Hang in there 1stGen’s. Things will get better, not only after college but when you are still in college.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
5
I've been teaching for 15 yrs at a California community college, an institution which is often the entry-point for first-gen students. All of them have big dreams, many of them make it -- but some just don't. Many struggle with incredible burdens that most faculty and other middle-class people can't imagine. Programs like this that support the students and teach them the "secrets" of negotiating the middle-class world are critical. It's also essential for our faculty, most of whom come from middle class + backgrounds, to learn from these students how to be better teachers and mentors.
7
What has learning got to do with the designer wear, expensive cars and luxury vacations ?. Practically all of this stuff has zero value. Only thing is that the poor students feel intimidated and suffer from inferiority complex and nothing else.
Everyone goes to the college, whatever may be its status IVY or not, for studying and working hard, doesn't matter whether a student is rich, middle class or poor, so that the future job prospects might look brighter and that can make vast improvement in the overall condition of the entire family in the case of poor and middle class people. So, the goal must be achieved without bothering about the minor issues such as the ones mentioned in the article.
Everyone goes to the college, whatever may be its status IVY or not, for studying and working hard, doesn't matter whether a student is rich, middle class or poor, so that the future job prospects might look brighter and that can make vast improvement in the overall condition of the entire family in the case of poor and middle class people. So, the goal must be achieved without bothering about the minor issues such as the ones mentioned in the article.
7
Exactly. Calculus doesn't care if you are wearing Gucci while you are working the problems. It's still the same problem.
6
Apparently you did not grow up in the culture here in the United States. It is a consumer culture. The marketing, media, and society in general promotes conspicuous consumption and status symbols, and we are very stratified across social and economic classes. It is not an easy thing to avoid or ignore. Maybe you are emotionally strong enough or are financially or socially secure enough that you can just "not bother" about it. But if a student needs some mentoring or guidance to learn how not to "be bothered" about it, then that doesn't make them a weak person--that becomes part of their education as well. And as a university counselor for over two decades, I can tell you that no, not every student is here to study and work hard. Many of them think that college is their only route to a "good job" whatever that means, and they see it as a way to get their ticket punched. They actually get angry, some of them, when they have homework or get bad grades because they didn't put forth the effort. I am talking about the ones who come from a privileged background as well as some of the first-generation students. I am not going to get into all the reasons why college has become some kind of golden ticket to so many, but I will tell you that some of your assumptions about the USA and the students here are dead wrong.
4
Another important aspect of the first-generation experience that deserves more emphasis here is that a number of such students encounter real resistance from their families to the idea that they -- the students -- will change, and reflexive denigration of the experiences they are having and the things they are learning. In my own experience one parent made it plain that college was at best a necessary evil, a credentialing experience best put behind me once I had the diploma. Even though I didn't spend all that much time back home after starting college, that was a real source of stress --
12
Oh yes. . .back home in Kentucky that was called, "getting above your raising." I was the first of my cousins to go to college and finish--I am number 6 of 8 first cousins. The older ones wanted to get married and have kids right out of high school and work at the factory. Forty years later, the factory is closed and what's left for them are service jobs, or to migrate to another factory. The two cousins who are younger than I am also finished college and have had easier times navigating the economic waters. We are lucky. But it was not easy being different from the others when I was a young person.
8
Class transformation is a process. I was a first generation student in the 1970's. Theoretically, one gets a better job with a college education, and is able to elevate their next generation. That's the way it goes.
Once I got to college from my lower middle class neighborhood, I found myself engulfed by mostly rich or upper middle class kids. If there were lower class kids, they hid it well. That was in the days before the surge in scholarships based on financial need to kids of average intelligence like myself.
Now, my kids go to private school in NYC, at a net cost of $44,000 per year, which after income taxes, bus, annual donation, and considering the additional taxes I pay for public school that i don't use, is over $100,00 per year per kid.
I know that a significant portion of this money is subsidizing lower income kids so that they can get an better education than I had access to, and I'm happy to do that as I believe a rising tide lifts all boats, but please don't take it out on me, or my kids (who have absolutely nothing to do with their current upper middle class bracket).
My mom taught me that there were always going to be people who were richer than me and poorer than me, and although I am striving, I have a deep appreciation for everything I have.
Once I got to college from my lower middle class neighborhood, I found myself engulfed by mostly rich or upper middle class kids. If there were lower class kids, they hid it well. That was in the days before the surge in scholarships based on financial need to kids of average intelligence like myself.
Now, my kids go to private school in NYC, at a net cost of $44,000 per year, which after income taxes, bus, annual donation, and considering the additional taxes I pay for public school that i don't use, is over $100,00 per year per kid.
I know that a significant portion of this money is subsidizing lower income kids so that they can get an better education than I had access to, and I'm happy to do that as I believe a rising tide lifts all boats, but please don't take it out on me, or my kids (who have absolutely nothing to do with their current upper middle class bracket).
My mom taught me that there were always going to be people who were richer than me and poorer than me, and although I am striving, I have a deep appreciation for everything I have.
8
While I don’t doubt that first-generation students at Harvard and Yale have difficulties adjusting to the upper echelon of the academic world, and need and deserve support, I am shocked and disheartened to see not one mention of the seminal work that TRIO programs nationwide have been doing with this population for the past 50 years. It is as though the organizations at Harvard just invented the wheel a few years back.
Programs like Upward Bound and Educational Talent Search have been guiding and preparing talented low-income and first-generation young people for ivies and college at every level since the mid-60s. And Student Support Services programs help those very same students adjust to and make the most of their college experience. Furthermore, the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate programs have helped many thousands of these same students go on to earn graduate degrees. Together they have made the difference for literally millions of first-gen students in higher education.
Perhaps it's the limited perspective of the NYT or perhaps Ivy League schools don't want to be identified with the "common folk" and less distinguished institutions? Whatever the reason, this article ignores the brilliant history and accomplishments of many thousands of dedicated professionals who, for a half-century, have brought the abilities and potential and achievements and contributions of this population into higher education, and enabled them to make a difference in all of our lives.
Programs like Upward Bound and Educational Talent Search have been guiding and preparing talented low-income and first-generation young people for ivies and college at every level since the mid-60s. And Student Support Services programs help those very same students adjust to and make the most of their college experience. Furthermore, the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate programs have helped many thousands of these same students go on to earn graduate degrees. Together they have made the difference for literally millions of first-gen students in higher education.
Perhaps it's the limited perspective of the NYT or perhaps Ivy League schools don't want to be identified with the "common folk" and less distinguished institutions? Whatever the reason, this article ignores the brilliant history and accomplishments of many thousands of dedicated professionals who, for a half-century, have brought the abilities and potential and achievements and contributions of this population into higher education, and enabled them to make a difference in all of our lives.
11
You have won the American dream lottery by your own efforts and intellect. Keep your eyes on the prize. Do not live for the moment, keep your parents dream alive and look ahead to what you will do with the education you earned.
Challenge the University administration to stop wasting money treating you like a anthropology experiment and bring in five more first gen's a year.
You don't need all this palliative you are better and stronger. They are projecting their low opinion of their own kids on you.
I want you as our President and leaders in 25 years.
Challenge the University administration to stop wasting money treating you like a anthropology experiment and bring in five more first gen's a year.
You don't need all this palliative you are better and stronger. They are projecting their low opinion of their own kids on you.
I want you as our President and leaders in 25 years.
3
I am disappointed in the Times. They go to the same schools all the time. You would think the only universities in America are the Ivies -- Harvard, Yale, Brown, etc. If they wanted to really see first generation students they would have talkd to students at Wilkes, where most of the students are the first in their families to get a college degree, or a community college. These school deserve more credit for lifting the standard of living for low- to middle-income Americans than the well-endowed rich schools.
7
How refreshing it was to study in Sweden, where all people have the opportunity to attend a postsecondary institution provided their academic standing supports it. How interesting it was to realize, that the entire country is in a state of privilege because of this. The wealth gap amongst the Swedes was indistinguishable - to me, they were all rich. I don't just mean this only in a socioeconomic sense but an emotional and cultural sense too. I come from a very modest upbringing. In Sweden I worked while in school (seems common enough). However, while that is a commonplace practice in North America, to the Swedes it was extremely unusual. A professor of mine actually assumed it was because I wanted extra money, not that I needed it to survive. I wish America could get over its obsession with inequality. The fact that these low income bands of first gens have to bind together in the wake of something less understanding, less kind and less fair than them is incredibly saddening. Its disheartening, considering the grander scale, that these parades of otherness even need to exist. I hope at the very least it's a step towards Americans accumulating a more general understanding of fairness. There is a lot to learn from Scandinavia!
7
It must indeed have been refreshing for you to study in Sweden and I have great respect for that country's level of social democracy. Question: were large numbers of your classmates immigrants from developing countries? My guess is that at least a certain number of them were.
To an extent, I'm afraid your comment is a comparison of apples to oranges. The United States traditionally has been, and probably will continue to be, a vast magnet for people from developing countries around the globe. Sweden also welcomes people from around the globe to the best extent they can, but still, the U.S. has almost 40 times the population of Sweden and likely will be the country that the world's people aspire to get to in order to improve their lives (Canada perhaps even moreso). Sweden would not be able to offer them the same opportunities as the U.S.
As for the colleges and universities referred to in the article and in your comment, I would bet that a large number of Swedes would admit that they would not be able to get into Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale, or Princeton with a crowbar, any more than I would be able to. It is not only a question of money. The U.S. has by far the largest proportion of the world's top-ranked universities, more than Sweden and the rest of Europe combined. Unfortunately, most of us, no matter what our country of origin, will never be able to attend them.
To an extent, I'm afraid your comment is a comparison of apples to oranges. The United States traditionally has been, and probably will continue to be, a vast magnet for people from developing countries around the globe. Sweden also welcomes people from around the globe to the best extent they can, but still, the U.S. has almost 40 times the population of Sweden and likely will be the country that the world's people aspire to get to in order to improve their lives (Canada perhaps even moreso). Sweden would not be able to offer them the same opportunities as the U.S.
As for the colleges and universities referred to in the article and in your comment, I would bet that a large number of Swedes would admit that they would not be able to get into Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale, or Princeton with a crowbar, any more than I would be able to. It is not only a question of money. The U.S. has by far the largest proportion of the world's top-ranked universities, more than Sweden and the rest of Europe combined. Unfortunately, most of us, no matter what our country of origin, will never be able to attend them.
3
"The very point of enrolling at elite schools, of course, is to absorb the power and privilege that come with the degree." P+P? Really?
2
This seems to be the core of the problem, isn't it? First-generation Ivy League students , especially those from public schools, make it there by caring deeply about learning, by working very hard, and by standing out in some way or another.
Then they get to school and find that a majority of the students seem to agree that "the very point of enrolling at elite schools, of course, is to absorb the power and privilege that come with the degree".
Without a doubt that was the greatest shock to me. I had dreamed that by going to the Ivy League I would be surrounded by people whose greatest ideal was scholarship and discovery; instead I was surrounded by students who were there to gain power and privilege. Outer signs of privilege like clothing and travel didn't phase me in the least...but the raw quest for power and privilege was another matter. It was alienating...but also revealing!
Then they get to school and find that a majority of the students seem to agree that "the very point of enrolling at elite schools, of course, is to absorb the power and privilege that come with the degree".
Without a doubt that was the greatest shock to me. I had dreamed that by going to the Ivy League I would be surrounded by people whose greatest ideal was scholarship and discovery; instead I was surrounded by students who were there to gain power and privilege. Outer signs of privilege like clothing and travel didn't phase me in the least...but the raw quest for power and privilege was another matter. It was alienating...but also revealing!
2
These kids are wonderful. I think they might enjoy--even though it is now slightly dated--Curtis Sittenfeld's amazing novel, Prep, about being a scholarship girl (and hiding it) at an elite Prep school. It's both a portrait of isolation in adolescence and of the perils of trying to "pass" as middle class.
2
At my Ivy league university there were twice as many first generation students in its college of engineering, than in its arts and science.
In engineering, physics and maths your cultural background matters less than in the humanities. There, to how many museums your parents dragged you when young does give you an advantage.
In engineering, it doesn't.
In engineering, physics and maths your cultural background matters less than in the humanities. There, to how many museums your parents dragged you when young does give you an advantage.
In engineering, it doesn't.
6
The first - generation students shouldn't feel awkward about their parents, who possess no college degrees. They should proudly introduce their parents to others as having graduated from the Universal University Of Experience in " The College Of Life ".
4
This issue has been going on for decades -- I was a first-generation college freshman at an upstate NY private university, the Univ of Rochester. My roommate was a wealthy prep school girl from Brooklyn and she and her friend would vacation at her parents house in Fire Island. The country club they went to was near a poor area in Long Island where I went to public school -- a very poor area that is now mostly impoverished. I graduated at the top of my class in a very large public high school (over 1500 seniors during baby boom peak) so thought I would be okay, but I was just overwhelmed by all the wealthy students in college.I spent a very lonely winter break in a frigid dorm up there -- I couldn't afford to go home, and moved off campus in the summer to save money. After my sophomore year I dropped out even though I made the dean's list both years and was giving up a full-tuition scholarship. I still had to figure out room and board and was living on the edge very stressfully and it just was too painful to stay -- the counselor that advised me was clueless and my mother cried. I finally graduated 11 years later by going to night school. I met no one there that I could relate to, and found friends only in the computer lab. I think going to a state school or community college would have been so much better -- I could have found others with a similar background and been much happier. Private college, even with the extra scholarship money was a terrible mistake for me.
7
The Poor children, who not only achieved success in the field of education but also in their career should never ever feel guilty of their parents, who have no college degree whatsoever. They should instead feel proud of their parents for their sincerity, hardwork and dedication to see their children achieve what they haven't done.
3
It's turns of phrase like "the Poor children" which clearly shows the lack of attention paid to socioeconomic factors of society by the elite wealthy and the real life experience of such by those who carry it. Proofread your affluence
1
Or maybe it's because English probably isn't his first language given he's from India. "Proofread your affluence" sounds even funnier than it normally does when it's said by someone who lives in the U.S. to someone who lives in India.
You must loved feeling of constant outrage.
You must loved feeling of constant outrage.
1
You are simply into trivialities. Just by merely changing the name, one's economic and social status simply doesn't change. We should bother more about changing the vast difference in income inequality, social status and living conditions of these people. That should be the primary goal of everyone including the Governments concerned, unfortunately not so due to certain obvious reasons.
I have no hesitation whatsoever in calling them First - Generation students, which I already did in one of my earlier comments since my intention isn't hurt but express my sincere thoughts purely in favour of them.
I have no hesitation whatsoever in calling them First - Generation students, which I already did in one of my earlier comments since my intention isn't hurt but express my sincere thoughts purely in favour of them.
My Alma Mater, Middlebury, has been involved with the Posse Program for more than ten years, as have many other colleges. Not only do these students get a leg up before coming to college, but once in college, they openly work together and are proud of being Posse students. Interesting that of the Ivy League only Univ. of Pennsylvania, Cornell and Dartmouth are involved with Posse. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Brown (who is making up for lost time!) are not, and seem to be reinventing the wheel. Neither Amherst or Williams participates either, but they might have their own programs. See Possefoundation.org
2
Bryn Mawr, my grad Alma Mater, also does a program which mirrors The posse program
1
The students in this story are bright enough to gain admission to the Ivy League and low income enough to qualify for financial aid, in some cases, a lot of aid. Good for them. I wish that being a first generation student was as sought out when I was a college student, back in the 80's. But unlike these students I wasn't the top of my class, and while I had extracurricular activities, my GPA and test scores were middle of the pack. But fortunately for me, I graduated from high school in a state where at the time, the law was that if you graduated from high school the state university system had to admit you. Thank you Montana. For me, going to the University of Montana might as well have been going to Harvard for many reasons. As a first generation student I had to navigate not only academics, but the culture of a university and the bustling "metropolis" of Missoula. I remember after getting a 4.0 GPA my first quarter, that my mom asked "is that all I could get?!" I think one reason I had a great experience was that I am a strong extrovert, so going up to TA's and professors to ask questions was never intimidating. Becoming an RA which helped to pay for my room and board for three years was a great fit for my personality and not worrying too much about looking dumb allowed me to fumble my way through school. I feel for those who are shyer or are introverts and are fearful to ask questions.
9
How is it that not one of these first gen students comments on how privileged and lucky they are to be able to attend such elite institutions on a free ride? As a first generation college graduate from a middle class Italian family, I paid my way through school in the 1980s working 30+ hours a week and attending school full time. I never felt sorry for myself or inadequate because someone had a more expensive coat. That is life. Rather, I was focused on working hard to create a bright and successful future for myself, which I did and all on my own. Where is the appreciation for this incredible gift? I would have been delighted to attend an elite school, especially for free. This is America - a free, capitalist society where you can always find someone with more stuff, or less. This sense of entitlement is a major impediment to success.
11
Because the reporter did not include it does not mean these students aren't grateful. What a strange thing that to think.
Congratulations to Laura Pappano for her excellent article, "First-Generation Students Unite." Ms. Pappano beautifully captures the alienation and feeling of not belonging experienced by many 'first gen' students. What she did not discuss is their sadly high drop out rate. Over 25% of low income first-generation students don't even make it past freshman year, and 89% fail to graduate within 6 years. They are defeated by challenges large and small including many of the very hurdles mentioned by Ms. Pappano; juggling jobs and academic responsibilities, their reticence to seek extra help, and the isolation of being physically and metaphorically far from family.
To help address these issues I founded Campus Bound Scholars (www.campusboundscholars.org), a nonprofit providing trained adult mentors and financial support for first generation students heading off to college and throughout freshman year. The students we serve, just like the gutsy, smart and brave students in this article, are an inspiration to us all!
Amy G. Peck
Founder & Executive Director
Campus Bound Scholars Inc.
18 Holly Hill Lane
Katonah, NY 10536
http://campusboundscholars.org
https://www.facebook.com/campusboundscholars
To help address these issues I founded Campus Bound Scholars (www.campusboundscholars.org), a nonprofit providing trained adult mentors and financial support for first generation students heading off to college and throughout freshman year. The students we serve, just like the gutsy, smart and brave students in this article, are an inspiration to us all!
Amy G. Peck
Founder & Executive Director
Campus Bound Scholars Inc.
18 Holly Hill Lane
Katonah, NY 10536
http://campusboundscholars.org
https://www.facebook.com/campusboundscholars
6
For me, the most important line in this piece -- and a line missed by all the rather mean spirited naysayers -- is the line about the $15 for a class trip followed closely by not being able to afford books for classes and being dependent on being able to borrow needed texts from the library. Let's take that $15 trip to the museum or the hospital lab where the fee probably covers transportation and entrance fee. Add lunch or coffee in the cafe and we're up,to $20. 2 hours work for some students. 2 hours work that they may well have budgeted towards something else: meals for that week or copy paper and a cartridge needed to print out the big term paper at the end of the quarter. For the other kids? $20 means almost nothing, or, at worst, feeling pinched about the cover for the party the next weekend. Add to this the stress many students feel as being unprepared for the level of foundational coursework assumed by professors as they begin the class and not understanding that stopping by for office hours is not viewed by professors as indicating inadequacy but is viewed as showing initiative as you have a situation where these bright, capable, ambitious young people are set up, if not to,fail, at least to have to struggle much much harder to maintain their grades.,motivation and self-confidence. All features employers look for in choosing whom to bring on board.
8
Most of these kids with SAT scores in the 1200s-1300s (out of 1600) would've been better off if they had gone to 4 year public universities, where they can major in something practical like accounting, nursing or engineering, allowing them to enter an upper middle class life, not to mention they'll feel much more comfortable on these campuses.
Instead, they are being trapped into these elite schools where they are probably at the bottom quartile in academic preparedness, and end up having to major in worthless libart majors like Art History, Sociology or Ethnic/Regional/Gender/Religious "studies". What kind of jobs do they get after that elite education? Teach for America? Most companies won't hire them because they have no practical skills. Jobs that Ivy League grads go for on Wall Street or Capitol Hill are for those who are already well-connected.
Some here seem to think these kids should take full opportunity to connect with the well connected on campus. As Daniel Golden pointed out in his book "Price of Admissions", that is not the reality on the ground. The rich kids socialize in their own circles on these campuses, they do not mix with the "commoners". Even Mark Zuckerberg could only get into the Jewish fraternity at Harvard, and he was from an upper middle class family. So much for establishing "connections".
This is yet another case of liberals making things worse for those they try to "help", like all those other AA beneficiaries.
Instead, they are being trapped into these elite schools where they are probably at the bottom quartile in academic preparedness, and end up having to major in worthless libart majors like Art History, Sociology or Ethnic/Regional/Gender/Religious "studies". What kind of jobs do they get after that elite education? Teach for America? Most companies won't hire them because they have no practical skills. Jobs that Ivy League grads go for on Wall Street or Capitol Hill are for those who are already well-connected.
Some here seem to think these kids should take full opportunity to connect with the well connected on campus. As Daniel Golden pointed out in his book "Price of Admissions", that is not the reality on the ground. The rich kids socialize in their own circles on these campuses, they do not mix with the "commoners". Even Mark Zuckerberg could only get into the Jewish fraternity at Harvard, and he was from an upper middle class family. So much for establishing "connections".
This is yet another case of liberals making things worse for those they try to "help", like all those other AA beneficiaries.
9
I used to be one of "these kids" you talk about. Now I'm a professor of the humanities at an elite liberal arts school, teaching the elites and the kids you don't think should have come here. The first generation college students work for their own fates, no matter what you seem to think they are capable of.
20
My first reaction was - what an arrogant take, that dismisses the value of many fields as not being pragmatic at the same time it assumes these students have nothing to offer in these academic disciplines, or no driving passions.
You make a point, in mentioning that connections still count - I wonder if that is even more than in the 60's and 70's because of the increasing wealth and power differences between classes.
You make a point, in mentioning that connections still count - I wonder if that is even more than in the 60's and 70's because of the increasing wealth and power differences between classes.
1
As a an acquaintance of mine (Harvard PhD) with whom I co-authored a major study on dropouts) loves to remind others, data is not the plural of anecdote. The data doesn't support your anecdote.
2
How I wish a program like this had existed at Syracuse University when I was a freshman and sophomore there! When I first came to campus, I naively thought college would be some great equalizer and I would just blend in with everyone else. Then I learned the vast majority of my fellow students were from the metropolitan New York/Long Island area and upper-middle-class to lower-upper-class, unlike me from small-town rural Ohio being supported by a school secretary who made very little money and getting no support from my father at all. My father never even finished high school, but because I was white, I more or less blended in. Every semester, in those days before linked computing systems, I had to struggle to make sure the bursar applied my scholarships and financial aid to my bill just so I could register for classes. I listened to classmates say they were bored with vacations and experiences I could only fantasize about. I saw some partying their time away or frozen in paralyzing depression because they didn't even want to be there. I couldn't conceive of this because I knew that if I didn't attend class and get good grades, I'd be out. In later years, I'd discover that everyone in journalism school knew their chances of getting a job after graduation would be better with internship experience, but most internships were unpaid, so only better-off students could afford them. A program like this would have helped me better navigate rocky shoals I wasn't aware existed.
37
I am a first gen college student, just graduated from Northwestern in 2014. Took about 8 years including junior college since I was working my way and could afford about two classes max in any given period.
I graduated HS in 2003 and got into a smaller college right off the bat but flaked out within the first semester and it was a case study in getting hit by the things I didnt know I didnt know.
That is the most detrimental thing for people who are disadvantaged in any kind of category (fiscal, intellectual, etc) its what we don't know that we don't even know that really can dishearten and undermine aspirations.
At the IVY level they are embracing these first gens and I will say that among other schools state/city with far less illustrious traditions there are scores and scores of first time students learning the ropes. There are many (not enough) teachers and educators trying to help all us first gen scholars not get lost or intimidated in the woods of higher education.
I graduated HS in 2003 and got into a smaller college right off the bat but flaked out within the first semester and it was a case study in getting hit by the things I didnt know I didnt know.
That is the most detrimental thing for people who are disadvantaged in any kind of category (fiscal, intellectual, etc) its what we don't know that we don't even know that really can dishearten and undermine aspirations.
At the IVY level they are embracing these first gens and I will say that among other schools state/city with far less illustrious traditions there are scores and scores of first time students learning the ropes. There are many (not enough) teachers and educators trying to help all us first gen scholars not get lost or intimidated in the woods of higher education.
24
These "elite" private institutions have themselves to blame for creating student bodies bifurcated into the poor and the wealthy with a noticeable chasm between. They have jacked their tuition and fee levels to such heights that the middle class students are either at state U. or the schools that offer merit aid.
10
Actually, these elite universities have money to spend on need-blind admissions that other campuses don't. Their sticker prices are high, but their financial aid generous, which is why they can offer students a tremendous opportunity. But this article is about what its like for students once they arrive on these campuses.
4
Right on! A large part of why these schools are elite is because of the large number of children of the wealthy and well-connected that they admit. To help pare their liberal guilt as well as to quiet those who complaint about them catering only to the SES elite, they admit those "less fortunate" low income, first generation and URMs through Affirmative Action, i.e. lowered standards.
The real victims or perhaps I should say suckers are the unhooked middle class kids who are only recruited to keep up the SAT scores for the sake of USN rankings, most of whom naively cling to the idea that meritocracy still exists in America, sacrificed their childhood and high school years to play select soccer/basketball, get involved in a million and one clubs and volunteer for hundreds of hours on causes they otherwise couldn't care less about, not to mention study their tail off only to be turned down to make room for the rich and the poor with much lower qualifications. That's what the Ivies meant why they say they want a "well-rounded class".
The real victims or perhaps I should say suckers are the unhooked middle class kids who are only recruited to keep up the SAT scores for the sake of USN rankings, most of whom naively cling to the idea that meritocracy still exists in America, sacrificed their childhood and high school years to play select soccer/basketball, get involved in a million and one clubs and volunteer for hundreds of hours on causes they otherwise couldn't care less about, not to mention study their tail off only to be turned down to make room for the rich and the poor with much lower qualifications. That's what the Ivies meant why they say they want a "well-rounded class".
8
I agree with these comments so much! As a recently waitlisted Harvard applicant, I am frustrated by the thought that my middle-class status could be putting me at a disadvantage. I can't place adversity on a resume (for which I am grateful), but also never experienced the "edifying vacations, museum excursions, daily doses of NPR and prep schools that groom Ivy applicants." My high school counselors couldn't help polish my application because no one at my 5A school has attended Harvard before. There is an in-between that the admissions office doesn't account for. My app contained a perfect GPA/ACT, plentiful leadership in and outside of school, continuous community service, and essays that showed my very best self. I wonder if I fit in a different income bracket my waitlist would have become an acceptance.
2
The Columbian girl that's shy to disclose her background has terrific disposition and there's no doubt she'll be the most successful of the bunch. She's not obnoxious and looking for a pat on the back or under the illusion being poor makes her entitled to anything; she's minding her business, working hard and taking advantage of the opportunity she's been granted at a world-class college. Many first-gen students are oblivious to the fact that words like “poor” or "first-gen" are trigger words to many people for laziness, affirmative action, unmotivated, terrible secondary school, and dullness. Don't hide your background, but don't be so quick to rub it in everyone's face either. You've hit the lottery, just work hard and milk that $240k education for all it's worth, and you're set for life.
18
While I agree that people should not hide their background, nor rub it in everyone's face, I find your overall message to be distastefully phrased. I don't see how the student's shyness in disclosing her background guarantees she'll be "the most successful of the bunch". It seems to me that you are brushing aside a few necessary explanations there, as I don't believe you properly explain yourself aside from claiming that words like poor and first-gen (why did you add quotations? people are poor and there are first-gen students) are trigger words to "many people" for [insert word TB associates with poor and first-gen in his mind]. Nevertheless, I find myself in partial agreement with your message; all first-generation students attending top universities, such as myself, have indeed "hit the lottery". What. A. Check!
2
"Many first-gen students are oblivious to the fact that words like “poor” or "first-gen" are trigger words to many people for laziness, affirmative action, unmotivated, terrible secondary school, and dullness. Don't hide your background, but don't be so quick to rub it in everyone's face either. "
Well, yes, because God forbid they trigger your stereotypes. It's very important that they be discreet about their poverty, lest other people be uncontrollably compelled to assume that they are dull and unmotivated. Then they'll deserve whatever they get, right?
Well, yes, because God forbid they trigger your stereotypes. It's very important that they be discreet about their poverty, lest other people be uncontrollably compelled to assume that they are dull and unmotivated. Then they'll deserve whatever they get, right?
1
Wait working hard to get good grades and high scores is hitting the lottery? Sounds a bit bizarre.
Getting into an Ivy or little Ivy when all one has is a name and a trust fund is hitting the lottery. Let's get real here about who really is dull, lazy and unmotivated.
Getting into an Ivy or little Ivy when all one has is a name and a trust fund is hitting the lottery. Let's get real here about who really is dull, lazy and unmotivated.
I wish I'd had access to this type of community decades ago. A first-gen college graduate, I excelled academically at my prestigious college, but I really felt backward socially. I cringe now as I remember visiting a college friend over the summer by Greyhound bus (the only way I could travel) and saying "What's that?" as we passed a Lord & Taylor store with what I perceived as "funny writing" on its side. I went on to earn two advanced degrees, including a J.D. from an Ivy League university, but the I can still feel the sting of not getting references to the Hamptons, Coach, etc.
8
You know what I wish? I wish our society had more respect for honest labor. The words "embarrassed" or "ashamed" were used by these students to describe how they felt when speaking about their grammar school educated, un-skilled blue collar parents. Well guess what? Those kids would not be there had it not been for those same uneducated, hardworking parents, giving them what matters most: love and support. It's the lack of pride and respect for old fashioned hard labor that needs to be addressed. Ms Barros should have held her hand up high for the only point she had to contribute in the class discussion. The media tells our society that an unskilled job is shameful, that success comes in a brand new car or a coat with the label on the lapel. but in reality, it's honest hard work and responsible living that should be applauded. These 1st gens are the strongest. They are the most determined. Against all odds, they are where they want to be. And yes, they do need a little "elite" know-how to round out the "street-smarts". I wish their group great success. Now go out there and hold your heads up high for how much you've had to overcome and be proud of your family's honest hard work when you say "London for spring break? My mom's single and works hard at the school cafeteria, so that's out of my league. But, with this ivy education, I'm sure I'll get there one day."
14
Reminds me of that Woody Allen movie with Tracy Ulman. They played a blue collar couple who scrimped and saved to send their only daughter to an expensive prep school, when they went to visit her on campus, she was so ashamed she pretended not to know them. As they walked away feeling sad, the husband said, "this is what we want isn't it? For her to disdain people like us?"(or something to that effect). The wife said, "Yes, absolutely!" They said to each other, "We did it!" and happily walked off.
9
When you are a first generation the worse part is not when you realize you don't belong there, but when you start sensing that you also don't belong to your family anymore. That's when you really feel alone, plus guilty.
30
Don't belong in college? You got in, you got accepted, didn't you? You belong as much as the neXt person. Grow a spine.
4
Yes, that's another part of it. When you come home that first summer and you're not even trying to exude any sort of smugness or superiority but regardless, someone says "I don't understand you anymore," or somehow otherwise makes you feel as if you don't fit in with your family or your world any longer because your ideas and attitudes and philosophy of life have changed.
3
I got an MD, a PhD and a specialty so I guess I did grow a spine. I was talking about the feeling I was personally experiencing at the beginning. I was very young and also a human being.
6
The disdain this country shows for people who wash soil or grease off their hands at the end of the day is sickening. One day the plumbers, sanitation workers and janitors will not show up for work and the keyboard-horde will be in big trouble.
Our roads, bridges, food supply and climate are failing and universities are cranking out bankers, swindlers, programmers and politicians. How sad.
Our roads, bridges, food supply and climate are failing and universities are cranking out bankers, swindlers, programmers and politicians. How sad.
16
I'm the 3rd generation to have attended college in my family; both parents had degrees and one was a specialist M.D. Fifty years ago, I set off for a small midwestern liberal arts college, one that attracts a lot of students from prep schools and elite high schools who didn't get into the Ivies. I was a pretty confident guy until I got to college and discovered that many of my fellow students seemed to have come from a different, much more sophisticated world. That was a shock. Since then, I've acquired a better sense of what constitutes sophistication and knowledge, but I've also appreciated the great advantages I have had. If I, a kid from an upper middle class family with two educated parents, felt like an outsider, what must kids from far less privileged backgrounds feel like?
18
What difference does it make whether you drive Mercedes or take a bus to go to work. All it matters is how well you do at work. Similarly, it does not matter how you got into Brown, all it matters is how well you do while you are at Brown. All freshmen will have to go through some adjustment when they arrive at the campus. What type of adjustment they have to go through depends on their social experience. It is not a big deal to skip beach in a spring break. They all come out fine.
6
Get a grip, really. Life is not fair. We are not all dealt the same hand of cards. But it is hard work and tenacity that can make the difference at the end of the day. We need to quit creating "divisions" and just feel privileged to be a part of a top rate school.
7
Sure. Because hard work and putting your nose to the grindstone is the solution to everything, right? *sigh* No room for a helping hand.
3
Programs like this don't "create divisions"-- they help *address* divisions that already exist in society. Ignoring those issues doesn't make them magically disappear.
In other words, these students are in much the same boat as millions and even billions of previous immigrants to this country, with the added advantage that they can get financial aid for college, which didn't exist for many previous generations. My dad, first generation, son of an Arab immigrant peddler and factory worker, went to a technical institute, which is what he could afford. I've known other, American students, who were accepted at Harvard, but at that time Harvard and other private schools didn't offer nearly the financial aid that they do now, so these students didn't go. In short, no sympathy for these students.
7
"No sympathy"? Really? Is it not possible to acknowledge, at the same time as you recognize that these students have advantages that many never had (including my German grandmother, whom I was later told actually hated me because I was able to go to college and she didn't), that it would not be out of place to support them in their efforts to succeed? Why be petty and bitter about it? Why not say to them "You can go to college when those before you in your family could not? Great! Congratulations! Now let's see if we can help you emerge happily with a degree in hand and ready for whatever comes next."
Or would you rather be like my grandmother, who, sadly, was a very bitter person who begrudged others their chance at happiness?
Or would you rather be like my grandmother, who, sadly, was a very bitter person who begrudged others their chance at happiness?
7
The school of hard knocks won't go over well with this "Why me?!" Facebook generation, be they rich or poor.
2
Well, the important thing is that you feel superior to them, I guess.
Oh, how I wish there was a first-gen movement when I was in college. As a white student it may have been easier for me to 'pass' as middle-class at first glance than for some, but it was just as lonely and disorienting. I so appreciate the idea that these students are coming out of the closet. For me, telling my friends as an adult that I grew up low-income felt liberating-- I was getting to own a part of me that I had long felt the need to hide, even though most of my peers still don't understand what it is really like to be low-income. That these students do not feel the need to hide is important.
14
Even if Harvard gave me a new wardrobe and a BMW I wouldn't fit in with most of the other students. But if you can make the Ivies, you always have the option to go somewhere else and get just as good an education without your happiness depending on being invited to go sailing with your old-money classmates. Malcolm Gladwell wrote a terrific essay on the advantages of being a big fish in a little pond in David and Goliath. Well worth reading for any senior.
9
What is the big deal. I was not only first generation to go to College, but first to go to high school in my family. I went to Brooklyn College and then NYU Law School. I grew up in Brooklyn, first in Brownsville and then in the City Housing Projects. I worked throughout my school years from the age of 8 till I graduated from Law School. I shined shoes, sold ices from a pushcart, delivered flowers, was a waiter, bus boy and bellhop and numerous other jobs. I worked after school and during the summer. I became successful lawyer in Los Angeles and then CEO of a fortune 200 company. At no time did I think I deserved special recognition or assistance from the school or the government. I was happy to have been the beneficiary of an open American Society. It is about time that we stopped creating divisions in the USA. We are all Americans, we have opportunities and should be thankful for the chance to get ahead. Of course if we got rid of class warfare and appealing to diverse groups(as opposed to just Americans) we would put a lot of people out of business who make a living by dividing us instead of just letting us being Americans.
11
Another "I am a self-made person, I didn't need any help from any programs or the government" person. Yet it is this country and this government being what they are that enables anyone to have any opportunity to "make themselves" at all. Yet to even acknowledge this is to be accused of trying to "divide people."
I despair.
I despair.
1
This article is about a few, extraordinary high school students who went to elite colleges and universities.Why did the elite schools accept them? So, they could claim economic diversity, which seems to be 'in' now.
Did you known that all children, possess similar range of intelligences? Why don't we cut all classes in half, pay all teachers what engineers and doctors make---from pre-k and up? I've been in public schools, where the teacher spends all of the time on 'housekeeping', instead of teaching and interacting.Economic deprivation, seems to require more housekeeping'.
Otherwise, we're just guilty of tokenism.
Did you known that all children, possess similar range of intelligences? Why don't we cut all classes in half, pay all teachers what engineers and doctors make---from pre-k and up? I've been in public schools, where the teacher spends all of the time on 'housekeeping', instead of teaching and interacting.Economic deprivation, seems to require more housekeeping'.
Otherwise, we're just guilty of tokenism.
9
When education colleges are as difficult to get into and as rigorous as medical school and engineering I'll consider paying teachers more. Until that time, no dice.
2
One thing that the article does not touch on is that first gen children not only struggle with tuition costs. Even the college application process is expensive. Taking the SAT and the ACT is an expensive endeavor. Furthermore, once you've paid those fees, and have accepted the fact that you are going to have to take out loans for college, then you're slammed with paying enormous fees for books required by professors, not all of them available at the library. First gen students getting an elite education should not be an anomaly--having their presence on campuses improves the overall quality of education for everyone. We should be fighting not only to make college more affordable, but to make the admissions process more affordable, and book rentals more affordable. One potential solution would be to regulate and force the College Board and corporations like it to reign in costs.
5
Most colleges have a procedure to have the application fee waived if you are low income. SAT and ACT also have fee waivers for low income students that your high school counselor can arrange for you. It is all on the test services websites.
These application and test fee waivers have existed for a long time.
These application and test fee waivers have existed for a long time.
4
Yes, yes! For me it was "Welcome to our university! Now please send us a check for $100 as a deposit to hold your dorm room." Well, my mother didn't have $100 handy just any old time. Actually, I have to give Syracuse credit--they waived my $25 application fee. But after that, it was "We need $100 as a deposit for this and $150 as a deposit for that and $200 as a deposit for this thing." Working-class parents cannot write those checks with ease, in 1979 or today.
1
My husband was the first in his family to attend college. He did so with a spouse and family in tow at the age of 26, starting as a freshman with other 18 year olds in a southern university at a prestigious engineering department. The only time he felt really out of place (nerds are very accepting) was in attempting to play baseball on the student-facility team (which was for fun, not for glory.) He realized he moved more like the facility then the students. Beer nights were fun for him (but maybe less so for others) as he would show up with a spouse and a 4 year old.
My point on this little aside is that university life isn't "real" in any sense of the word. The US university system is particularly unreal in that the student who parents pay or for whom great loans are taken out may feel more disconnected from what will be their future life, than those who know that their education isn't a matter of continuing a tradition or making parents happy, but rather a means to a better job and by inference a better life.
Today, 30 years later I realize that our families were working class (lower or lower middle class to some). My husband's desire to be an engineer changed our status from this to solidly upper middle class (or professional class, every sociologist/anthropologist seem to have different terms). I wasn't aware of what this would do but he was fully aware and frankly uninterested in fraternities, trips, or expensive clothes; the education was what was important.
My point on this little aside is that university life isn't "real" in any sense of the word. The US university system is particularly unreal in that the student who parents pay or for whom great loans are taken out may feel more disconnected from what will be their future life, than those who know that their education isn't a matter of continuing a tradition or making parents happy, but rather a means to a better job and by inference a better life.
Today, 30 years later I realize that our families were working class (lower or lower middle class to some). My husband's desire to be an engineer changed our status from this to solidly upper middle class (or professional class, every sociologist/anthropologist seem to have different terms). I wasn't aware of what this would do but he was fully aware and frankly uninterested in fraternities, trips, or expensive clothes; the education was what was important.
9
What? My siblings and I, as white as can be and I thought - middle class -are all first gen college grads, but so what? Why do people insist on scouring their lives for something that makes them "less than" in some sense, and then starting an organization to empower and re-identify their status as something special and to be proud of? The whole trend, across the board, is nauseating and smacks of narcissism. Be glad you got into Harvard and find a way to deal with it. I know it's hard not being a legacy and all, :LOL, but somehow - even without your own newspaper and parade - I think you'll all make out just fine.
8
In society we naturally seek out, those who are like minded, have the same experience, those we can identify with. So, I always think it is great when young people, united to have a stronger voice. There is power in numbers. So, good job to those who are uniting. Based on the comments I see, there seems to be many sentiments that this is nothing special. However, from my perspective, it is special, just not anything new. I too am a first generation college student. My parents didn't graduate high school let alone go to college, and so on. Maybe, I don't see my story as unique because I have surrounded myself around persons with similar stories. While in college I was in Student Support Service, a TRIO Program. What I hope the author of this article investigates are the TRIO programs, which has existed across this great country for 50 years to serve first generation college students. I am now employed at Wichita State University's Upward Bound Wichita Prep Program, A TRIO Program. Where we serve high school students, preparing them to be first generation college students. Here in the middle of the country, this program has existed for 50 years, we are even planning a reunion in June to celebrate. Good Luck to all those first generation students. Thank you NY Times for covering this topic, I do hope you see the value in going in researching this a even further. And Thank You TRIO Programs.
6
This type of organization will primarily help those first generation students who want to learn the discourse of class marginalization, study sociology/political science, and have plans of going into politics.
For those students who have other interests, I suggest the following: Immerse yourself in a subject about which you feel passionately/find those scholars, artists, scientists whose views you share and align yourself with them/learn the vocabulary used in your field (smarts is not enough). Write well. Forget what others have and love what you have. And lastly…be brave.
For those students who have other interests, I suggest the following: Immerse yourself in a subject about which you feel passionately/find those scholars, artists, scientists whose views you share and align yourself with them/learn the vocabulary used in your field (smarts is not enough). Write well. Forget what others have and love what you have. And lastly…be brave.
9
I worked for many years in a highly-regarded college (not Ivy) that had a number of "1st-gen" students. One of the difficulties some of them (usually those with limited financial resources) faced was that they were expected to fulfill family responsibilities that are not usually required of college students of standard college age (18-22 years). I knew students who had to arrange their classes so that they could go home and take care of young siblings, or skip a class because grandma had to go to the doctor. A few were the only responsible members of their families. This goes beyond embarrassment because they hadn't spent spring break in the Virgin Islands, and was an additional burden that could make them more keenly aware of differences between them and their fellow students.
38
Great point! I can remember when I was teaching full-time and working on an advanced degree at night and my mother called me to ask if I could come to a Tupperware party that my sister was having. First of all, I never did get my mother to understand that she could not call me during the school day, let alone convince her that I couldn't miss a graduate school class to check out the latest in Tupperware products!
One thing that struck me about being a first-gen at Harvard was how wealth was NOT in my face. Sure, maybe students were walking around in $600 jackets, but I didn't know that because I don't usually pay attention to clothes and I don't tend to recognize what the big brands are. What impressed me was students' behavior, not the stuff they had. They were so surprisingly unassuming and normal. They didn't parade with their wealth (unlike the richer kids at my high school, or the wannabe rich kids flashing gaudy bling like the horseshoe necklace mentioned in the article). I expected Harvard kids to be worse, but they really surprised me. I was even shocked to see them go to class in sweatpants and flip-flops, with messy hair, especially the girls. Of course, there were some show-offs - there always are - but on the whole, I'd say that Harvard undergrads are very down-to-earth kids who don't feel like they need to flash their wealth around. I really appreciated and enjoyed that.
The school makes a big effort to select for character, for a certain type of person, as much as that's possible, as opposed to just focusing on academics or fancy extra-curriculars (the usual indicators of privilege). Maybe that explains it. But now it really annoys me when people continue to propagate the stereotype of the snobbish, snotty rich Harvard kid who looks down on the world. Please, that's not Harvard College - it's the Harvard Business School. There's a difference.
The school makes a big effort to select for character, for a certain type of person, as much as that's possible, as opposed to just focusing on academics or fancy extra-curriculars (the usual indicators of privilege). Maybe that explains it. But now it really annoys me when people continue to propagate the stereotype of the snobbish, snotty rich Harvard kid who looks down on the world. Please, that's not Harvard College - it's the Harvard Business School. There's a difference.
19
When I was a freshman at Harvard, the wealth we envied the most was that of the distant past. I remember my boyfriend's room in Wigglesworth, where 3 guys - and, occasionally, their girlfriends - stayed in a double and a single off of a common room. We all knew that 75 years back, the same quarters had housed one gentleman (the common room was his parlor) and his manservant.
1
Oof -- you lost some major credibility when you expressed annoyance at the Harvard College stereotype -- but then proceeded to foist an equally-ignorant stereotype on students at HBS. Go across the river, attend a class, meet students there (a large % of which went to The College, BTW) -- I promise that you'll be just as pleasantly surprised by them as I'm sure many readers of this article would be pleasantly surprised by you!
Sincerely,
HBS grad
Sincerely,
HBS grad
Commenters here seem to see the divide in terms of ski vacations and nice clothes. It is much more subtle and important than that. It is, as one student says, about the number of hours one spends working versus studying, or the possibility of getting a terrific (unpaid) internship in a major expensive city and a leg up on your fellow graduates applying for the same jobs. When you're making chit-chat with a firm's hiring manager, do you talk about lacrosse or skiing, or the time you visited Budapest, or the hours you spent babysitting your baby sister, because your mom was at work. These students didn't have private voice lessons, or experience on elite competive math teams -- and that difference will show. They will privately wonder (since other people will outloud) whether they really deserve to be on these campuses or whether they are filling some quota. And that question will haunt them.
These students will do fine, they've made it to great colleges, but they feel the difference every single day as the haves continue to have more -- and the havenots continue to have less. The difference from 30 years ago is that the middle is vanishing small -- and the extremes -- so very extreme. Their classmates who didn't make it to the Ivys are much more likely to become the boomerang kids who get a diploma, but not a job.
These students will do fine, they've made it to great colleges, but they feel the difference every single day as the haves continue to have more -- and the havenots continue to have less. The difference from 30 years ago is that the middle is vanishing small -- and the extremes -- so very extreme. Their classmates who didn't make it to the Ivys are much more likely to become the boomerang kids who get a diploma, but not a job.
17
paula, there are few second, third, etc. generation Americans who can afford to take unpaid internships. The problems these first generation students face aren't unique to them, but to most American students whose parents aren't part of the one percent, and who rely on work and financial aid to attend college.
3
I'm sure my daughter will be surprised to hear that we could have afforded her to have that great unpaid internship in DC. Also all that work she had to do to get into her overseas program at Seoul National University along with a scholarship. And, of course, the kids are going to the top tier state school, didn't even let them apply anywhere else. Yeah, it's a tough life.
I was the first person in my family to go to college. I went to a community college and then a state university. It wasn't until I got my doctorate at Columbia Un in NYC that I was aware of the status or lack thereof of my educational background. The people you go to school with do not shape your history but they can affect the perception you have of yourself; for better and worse.
6
I don't see that these students are "complaining," "whining," and playing the ungrateful victim. They're just finding a community of people like them and they're networking and enjoying sharing stories, just like everybody else (finals clubs & fraternities come to mind). What's the big deal? They seem like great kids to me, just what I would expect from the ivy league.
48
Instead of withdrawing or hiding their sense of being out of place, they're creating strategies that are contributing to their resilience. They are fending off feelings of being "less than" and increasing their involvement with the college community. It's a great thing.
If you have to compare inequalities, why not compare those students who do not have legal immigration status or foreign students from third world countries. These students not always have a benefactor, they don't have legal status to work, apply for loans/grants but somehow get through college.
1
I'm confident that we will never read a story about "diversity" in which it is noted that Jews, a group which is 2.5% of the population, is routinely 15% or more at top schools...
it is axiomatic that heavy over-representation of a minority group displaces othe rminorities, and, in fact, the majority - non-Jewish whites.
But while we can talk about "whites" as a percentage of student bodies, we apparently can't look more closely. If we did, we'd find that top Asian and non-Jewish white students are the most discriminated against.
it is axiomatic that heavy over-representation of a minority group displaces othe rminorities, and, in fact, the majority - non-Jewish whites.
But while we can talk about "whites" as a percentage of student bodies, we apparently can't look more closely. If we did, we'd find that top Asian and non-Jewish white students are the most discriminated against.
3
Sounds like you're suggesting that Jewish students are given an advantage in college acceptances because they are Jewish. Don't think that's true.
6
Didn't realize there was a separate boX to check on applications marked 'Jewish'. Seems like you have a pretty big anti-semitic chip on your shoulder.
The hate and jealousy is so palpable in some of these comments. What is so terrible about getting together with other students with whom you share some commonalities?
24
Get over it already. It has always been this way but people now need to whine about it. I was a 1st generation college student who worked full time for 4 years as a full time student in the 80s. I had old and generic clothes and could never afford travel or going out like most of my new found friends but I never thought about it, I was happy just to be there. Everyone has hurdles to clear but keep your head down, stop complaining and acting like you are in some way excluded and get on with your life!
You are not a victim! You have an opportunity so grab it and work hard ...
You are not a victim! You have an opportunity so grab it and work hard ...
14
First-gen students are better served keeping their head down and paying very close attention to picking up the soft skills and intangibles of their more affluent classmates. These colleges are elite in large part because of the connections they serve of a platter. I'm not sure how banding together with lower born malcontents and complaining about designer winter coats helps you gel with the higher-born, connected peers. Don't squander your time on campus being a bitter kill joy; instead focus on meshing with the wealthier kids.
8
"Lower born malcontents"? Wow. TB thinks that you serfs should stay in the Downton Abbey basement scullery. Sunlight is for lords and ladies and Republicans.
1
"Banding together with lower born malcontents"? Sheesh! Your prejudice is showing!
"Shut up, you lesser creatures, and whip out your notebooks and start taking lessons from your betters--and just feel grateful you're permitted to be in a place where you can even do it!"
I guess that's the message. First-generation students are supposed to be humble and grateful they're allowed to hobnob with the 1% at all.
"Shut up, you lesser creatures, and whip out your notebooks and start taking lessons from your betters--and just feel grateful you're permitted to be in a place where you can even do it!"
I guess that's the message. First-generation students are supposed to be humble and grateful they're allowed to hobnob with the 1% at all.
1
I know people are mocking these kids, but I am second generation from two families that did not send many people to college until my generation. Yet, because of my appearance, I have been accused of lying about my background to garner sympathy (I am not a politician, why would I tell people I grew up poor with alcoholic parents if it wasn't true?).
First world problems, certainly, but it isn't fun to be stereotyped no matter who you are. And people who grew up poor often feel out of place among people with money because often our parents felt shame about their poverty and passed it on to us.
As for those complaining that the kids got into Harvard for free- highly qualified students from middle class families are often offered huge incentives to attend expensive private universities. There was an article just a few days ago noting that Stanford offers free tuition to students whose parents make less than 100k/year. Some students don't apply to those universities because the costs seem prohibitive, but most people do NOT pay those prices! If you want your kids to go to a prestigious school, apply and see what they offer!
First world problems, certainly, but it isn't fun to be stereotyped no matter who you are. And people who grew up poor often feel out of place among people with money because often our parents felt shame about their poverty and passed it on to us.
As for those complaining that the kids got into Harvard for free- highly qualified students from middle class families are often offered huge incentives to attend expensive private universities. There was an article just a few days ago noting that Stanford offers free tuition to students whose parents make less than 100k/year. Some students don't apply to those universities because the costs seem prohibitive, but most people do NOT pay those prices! If you want your kids to go to a prestigious school, apply and see what they offer!
4
I can somewhat relate to these students, since I was a first generation student, who recently graduated. For me though I always focused on getting the most out of my college rather than focusing on my unprivileged background.
I actually enrolled on graduate classes my first semesters because I didn't know if I would have money to come back the next year. Most professors would be intrigued that a 18year old dared ask to take their classes. Some would give me a hard time, others would say no. Either way I think having a solid confidence in your mission, respect for others, and you should have a great time.
I do have to say though, working on on a low pay job while in college is usually not worth it. If you consider every credit hour it costs to attend universities nowadays, that time is more valuable (if you can get an extra loan) studying, relaxing (just enough), and networking (basic economics). You're not going to beat the status quo by working like everyone else. It was a toughest mindset change for me. Just the other day I had to hire a cleaning service to clean my place (same job my mother does) and I felt like I was loosing my values, then logic hit me, 4hrs of my time is now multitude of times worth more than I would pay. Time I could using to improve my career and health.
P.S I should also note, dating a wealthy hard working grad student definitely didn't hurt either.
I actually enrolled on graduate classes my first semesters because I didn't know if I would have money to come back the next year. Most professors would be intrigued that a 18year old dared ask to take their classes. Some would give me a hard time, others would say no. Either way I think having a solid confidence in your mission, respect for others, and you should have a great time.
I do have to say though, working on on a low pay job while in college is usually not worth it. If you consider every credit hour it costs to attend universities nowadays, that time is more valuable (if you can get an extra loan) studying, relaxing (just enough), and networking (basic economics). You're not going to beat the status quo by working like everyone else. It was a toughest mindset change for me. Just the other day I had to hire a cleaning service to clean my place (same job my mother does) and I felt like I was loosing my values, then logic hit me, 4hrs of my time is now multitude of times worth more than I would pay. Time I could using to improve my career and health.
P.S I should also note, dating a wealthy hard working grad student definitely didn't hurt either.
2
I find it interesting that your solutions to this problem are 1) networking and 2) hooking up with a wealthy individual who is in a high "class" than you. Interesting.
1
Sorry thats what you got from it.
1
This situation is a double edge sword. The Ivy's and the highest rated schools are the ones with the most money for scholarships. They have the richest students, alumni, and legacy donors who are able to make generous contributions and build up the endowment and offer financial aid to students that would not otherwise have the oppportunity to get a great education. This creates a situation where the percentage of "have nots" to "haves" is maximized, resulting in the striking contrast highlighted in the article. The emotional burden for all students, "priviledged" or not, is high, even though the students themselves had little to do with their respective financial situations.
2
OK so what is the problem? A low income student has gotten into Harvard. All she has to do is study hard and graduate, and her ticket is punched. No sympathy from me.
9
Not even that hard.
1
I'm also a first-generation Ivy League student who was dependent on grants and scholarships. While I didn't feel out of place at Cornell, it was clear that some of my classmates had no idea that were "poor" kids on campus. My favorite comment came from a kid who said, "I don't think there should be any financial aid; someone has to work the service jobs." I was flabbergasted.
6
1st gen students going to an ivy are wasting their time if they don't also take advantage of all the social connections with their classmates. They could get just as good an education at their local state school, but if they don't schmooze with the rich folks while they're at hand, they're missing the main benefit of going to the kind of school where they all cluster.
5
Hey first generation college students: be sure to ignore your peers, as they can't offer you what sucking up to the wealthy students can. After all, they are the "smart" ones who got in on their own "merits" (George W. Bush, Mitt Romney).
"Nouveau smart" was the ironic term used by my Harvard roommate Robin Carter ('67), the son of uneducated people from the rural South, for himself and another roommate, whose father drove a milk truck in Brooklyn. It made me recognize what advantages those of us with what might be called intellectually privileged backgrounds had, and how much more of an achievement it was for these first-generation students to succeed. More power to them.
7
This article should have been published a week ago....................on April Fool's day. As a first generation college student, I feel no sympathy for their so-called problems. My Mom would have killed to get me into Harvard for free. These kids who complain have an extreme sense of entitlement.
14
The title should read First-Generation IVY LEAGUE Students Unite.
8
Well, the title of the video is "Ivy League Trailblazers."
As a first-gen college graduate, I'm not a fan of all the attention, and never found myself going out of my way to tell everyone. The undercurrent these days seems to be first-gen students shouting from the rooftops and starting clubs to put on their resume that they're first-gen students (because they believe people owe them something?). Further, first-gen at an Ivy is a savvy student that has likely learned how to "play the game" (e.g. stretch the truth and pump up tails of woe).
13
The first generation students in these elite Colleges should realize that many people feel out of place in College. Foreign students also worry that they don't fit in.
I went to Rice University in the eighties. My father in Kenya paid for my tuition. My mother had been to Teacher's training College but my father had not attended College. I felt very out of place as a stranger to American society. I didn't understand much about American politics, sports or even the heavy drinking and promiscuity many students indulged in.
Initially I kept my head down and studied. Eventually I made friends and found my own niche. I visited professors during their office hours and had lunch with them, finding them easier to talk to than the students my own age. They were like the teachers back home, people I could relate to.
I was lucky as my parents were very supportive of my education and encouraged me. But it it was still often a lonely feeling and I was far from home.
But even though Rice is an elite college there was not much awareness of which students were rich and which weren't. Most students wore scruffy jeans, shorts and tee-shirts. Only a few had cars. No one talked about expensive holidays. everyone seemed to be a little broke. I wonder if this has chnaged since the mid-eighties or if Rice is an exception.
People looked up to students who did really well in class or had some other talent.
Money didn't seem to be a factor.
I went to Rice University in the eighties. My father in Kenya paid for my tuition. My mother had been to Teacher's training College but my father had not attended College. I felt very out of place as a stranger to American society. I didn't understand much about American politics, sports or even the heavy drinking and promiscuity many students indulged in.
Initially I kept my head down and studied. Eventually I made friends and found my own niche. I visited professors during their office hours and had lunch with them, finding them easier to talk to than the students my own age. They were like the teachers back home, people I could relate to.
I was lucky as my parents were very supportive of my education and encouraged me. But it it was still often a lonely feeling and I was far from home.
But even though Rice is an elite college there was not much awareness of which students were rich and which weren't. Most students wore scruffy jeans, shorts and tee-shirts. Only a few had cars. No one talked about expensive holidays. everyone seemed to be a little broke. I wonder if this has chnaged since the mid-eighties or if Rice is an exception.
People looked up to students who did really well in class or had some other talent.
Money didn't seem to be a factor.
8
I was at Rice in the late 1950's. Sounds pretty much the same.
1
Graduated from to Rice in 2011, first generation student. I loved every moment on campus, and yes, the vibe has not changed!
I m glad to hear that Rice is the same as the tution is so much higher than when i was there in the eighties.. And in many ways, those years at Rice were the best in my life.
1
Ok. Poor neighborhood. Low taxes. Low school funding. Low teacher salaries. Inferior teachers and counselors. No role models. Public school funding should be separated from real estate assessments and real estate taxes. Federal per capita funding would help solve this problem
2
When I was a first generation to attend college kid back in the 60s - as were many of my peers - none of us had an issue with the condition ! We just followed the adage of OUR parents : " Deal with it. "
4
I did not go to study in an Ivy league college. But I was a first generation in college and it was a shock for me when I discovered there were lots of students who already had what I aspired to achieve with my college education. There were lots who were like me, but students who had studied in elite schools and who had access to resources we did not have managed to outshine us. I had the brains but could not get the grades I thought I could, just because there were a lot of things that were new to me. I could achieve my goal of studying medicine because I was always able to show I was good in admission tests. I think this feeling of not belonging is something that will always be present for first generation college students. It is good that colleges are starting to recognize that these students need help beyond the financial, although this is a matter of great importance. I hope the students in the article will go on to fulfill their dreams of education and go back to their communities to help others fulfill their dreams too.
2
First--NYTimes, please start telling the stories of the vast majority of low-income and first-gen college students who attend public institutions that are facing large cutbacks in public support.
Second--to all the commenters who described being a first-gen college student in the 1960s or 1970s...
Those were the days when a large share of college students were first generation. They were also white. Being first gen didn't necessarily mean you came from a poor family, although many did. And college for most students cost a great deal less than it does today. Please don't assume your experience provides an adequate lens from which to view today's first gen student. He or she is far more likely to be a minority and poor and is facing far greater personal cost for education. Please realize that an article focusing on the few who win the lottery and attend elite schools is something of a red herring.
Second--to all the commenters who described being a first-gen college student in the 1960s or 1970s...
Those were the days when a large share of college students were first generation. They were also white. Being first gen didn't necessarily mean you came from a poor family, although many did. And college for most students cost a great deal less than it does today. Please don't assume your experience provides an adequate lens from which to view today's first gen student. He or she is far more likely to be a minority and poor and is facing far greater personal cost for education. Please realize that an article focusing on the few who win the lottery and attend elite schools is something of a red herring.
10
When I graduated from High School in 1971 I was the first male in my family to graduate from High School. When I got my Associate’s degree in 2002 I was first male to graduate from college. I got my undergrad degree in 2006 and my Master’s in 2012. I was also the first male to receive each of those degrees. I earned each one of my college degrees while working full time. Oh and by the way I am a black man. What amazes me is how some current college students think because they have a degree that should make at least $30,000.00 a year because they went to school. Wake up you still have to put in the work and get your hands dirty.
5
I, too, am the first of my family to graduate from college. As the eldest of my parents' four children, my experience applying for admission and financial aid broke the ground for my siblings coming up behind me. Both of my parents were immigrants from Northern Europe. They were superintendents for a large apartment building in NYC, and their financial burdens raising four children were eased somewhat with the perk of free rent. They took an interest in our getting a good education, but they knew nothing of the process and could offer no real assistance as I struggled to learn how to pay for college, keeping in mind three other kids would also need to do so later. I was accepted to Princeton, Columbia, and to Penn. I had to turn them down, because the financial aid package was not sufficient. Somehow, my parents' income was more than that to qualify for the best assistance. I went on full-scholarship to SUNY-Binghamton instead. I had an excellent education, but I did not benefit from the prestigious pedigree of the Ivys. So be it. Being a first-gen is nothing new and it's tough no matter where you go to school. At least these kids will graduate with a prestigious degree from an Ivy school, which certainly will give them advantages others of their peers at public schools will not have.
3
Boy, does this ring a bell. Fifty years ago I was a first year student at the University of Virginia on a National Merit Scholarship and my background was from a southern California ghetto high school. If I had allowed myself to feel my feelings I would have collapsed in tears. Instead I quashed my feelings under a veneer of toughness. The University provided no support and made it clear that I didn't fit in and they wanted me out. I only survived past my second year due to the support of one grad student and a local family. It was a shock going from not having to study ever and still being the best in the class to having to study to avoid failing. My contempt and animus toward the rich frat boy culture at UVa was returned in spades. But I did learn how to wear a coat and tie, contend with those above my station, claim a station well beyond my upbringing and, thanks to the support of the local non-university community, feel my feelings. I was lucky. Support from, instead of rejection by, the university could have made a world of difference and might have left me willing to donate to the UVa. Instead I donate to and provide scholarships for students to our local public universities. The pretentious east coast institutions have discovered their social conscious much too late for my admiration.
10
'...It was a shock going from not having to study ever and still being the best in the class to having to study to avoid failing...'
So you finally had to do real work after coasting for years and you have 'contempt and animus' towards other people and are still bitter?
So you finally had to do real work after coasting for years and you have 'contempt and animus' towards other people and are still bitter?
2
Uh, NM, I don't think that the commenter said that.
2
I am dismayed at how many of the comments here reflect so much of the dismissive attitudes that the most vocal defenders of inequality demonstrate. Even more dismaying is how many people who, to believe their comments, worked their way up from difficult circumstances, never complained, never felt any resentment, and are sure that if everybody were just like them, all the country's problems would be solved. Anyone so sure that they did it all by themselves, without any help from anyone else, needs to look more closely at their circumstances -- even if those circumstances include gifts of temperament and ability that helped that get there, and were not willed into being.
51
Is this Elizabeth Warren writing this comment? Did it never occur to you that those of us who did get multiple college degrees when nether of our parents had ever spent one day in high school feel really, really fortunate? The ones who let every opportunity go by (as others in my family did) don't really have much to say here.
1
This reeks of poor writing and judgement. This writer is overly sympathizing with her subjects, rather than telling a story. We don't need to pity these students. They are strong, capable, and intelligent individuals.
...The bright children of janitors and nail salon workers, bus drivers and fast-food cooks may not have grown up with the edifying vacations, museum excursions, daily doses of NPR and prep schools that groom Ivy applicants...
Is this what I am reduced to? Is this what my experience is reduced to? Being a bright child of a janitor, nail salon worker, bus driver, or fast-food cook? When you throw out such generalizations, you diminish the many varied realities that first generation Americans. When you pity others, you diminish their humanity. You don't value their ability, talent, drive, and yes - their brightness.
I challenge you to dig for the truth, rather than relying on the easiest narrative.
I am the child of immigrants. I am a first generation American. I don't want or need your pity. I want your understanding. I demand your respect.
...The bright children of janitors and nail salon workers, bus drivers and fast-food cooks may not have grown up with the edifying vacations, museum excursions, daily doses of NPR and prep schools that groom Ivy applicants...
Is this what I am reduced to? Is this what my experience is reduced to? Being a bright child of a janitor, nail salon worker, bus driver, or fast-food cook? When you throw out such generalizations, you diminish the many varied realities that first generation Americans. When you pity others, you diminish their humanity. You don't value their ability, talent, drive, and yes - their brightness.
I challenge you to dig for the truth, rather than relying on the easiest narrative.
I am the child of immigrants. I am a first generation American. I don't want or need your pity. I want your understanding. I demand your respect.
6
Thank you for saying this. The unspoken condescension has been noted and spoken!
1
What troubles me most about the status of first-gen students is how carelessly they are treated by the financial aid office. A scholarship that covers tuition addresses only half of the monetary stresses these students face. How are they supposed to participate academically when they can't even afford to purchase the textbooks that will make that education possible? What are those financial aid officers thinking? Shame on you Harvard (with your $36 billion endowment) and all other elite schools for not thinking this through. If you want kudos for giving full scholarships to first-gen students to enroll, you are also obligated to help them succeed on campus and then graduate. In full disclosure, I am a professional fundraiser at a top university, and our most generous alumni, especially for financial aid, are those who received the same assistance. They see themselves in the faces of those students and, thanks to their education, have the resources to help.
6
Um yeah, sure, shame on Harvard for offering free tuition to someone in need.
1
These stories reminded me of my own trajectory. I am a daughter of immigrant parents with a first and third grade education. For those who posted about first gen students complaining about the expensive jackets don’t get that it’s not being able to not afford the expensive jacket, it about not having a jacket at all. I know that story very well, I landed in Westchester County NY to attend a small liberal arts college with no winter wear (I am from East LA). I learned from another fellow first gen West Coaster that there was a fund for needy students and boy was I happy to get the money I needed to buy an appropriate jacket, it made all the difference that cold winter. The same fund gave me money to make a Thanksgiving dinner (I couldn’t afford to fly home). I babysat (instead of interning) so I could go home for winter break since the campus closed. For those who think these are complaints, they are not, they are lived realities, stories that elites only read about. I am now a PhD student at a public university in California, though I don’t need the coat and I am no longer an undergrad the disparities persist. I vividly remember the time a friend and I were preparing for our exams and needed to write a response to a journal article submission, she emailed her mom for a some guidance—as I read the email I realized I had referenced her moms work on many occasions! I am glad to have a friends like this, some people have friends like these their entire lives.
5
The first of anything is difficult. While there is a struggle--deep and lengthy--at least there is a chance. It's better than nothing. The point is to improve the situation.
What wealth and privilege do well is preparation, but only to a certain extent. That general extent, that capacity limit, is lowered given lower wealth and privilege. That is what these students, these windbreakers, adventurers, are struggling with in a society built upon networks and capital.
What these students have is individual power: great but unstable or even unreliable, potential.
What wealth and privilege do well is preparation, but only to a certain extent. That general extent, that capacity limit, is lowered given lower wealth and privilege. That is what these students, these windbreakers, adventurers, are struggling with in a society built upon networks and capital.
What these students have is individual power: great but unstable or even unreliable, potential.
3
Every family has had some first-generation college students at some time. Duh! Why should our hearts (and presumably, some extra money or assistance) go out to these kids? Are they fish out of water? Every kid in college feels like a fish out under water. As everyone is unique, everyone has unique -- not collective -- feelings so this banal feature is a waste of paper and ink in this time of supposed unvironmentsl danger. A better column should be about whether or not college is necessary to those of average intellectual ability, maybe lower than average tenacity and effort. And whether numerous graduates in majors, such as social work, gender, sexuality, that are not economically productive, but need public money or subsidies of non-profits, to earn a decent living. That is a question of America's competitiveness with the rest of the world.
Http://www.periodictablet.com
Http://www.periodictablet.com
2
Sure, don't waste your time on a profession that improves peoples' lives. Head right to Wall Street and Silicon Valley - we know how much those workplaces have impacted our standards of living, especially since 2008.
1
I was a first-generation college student, too, but I feel little empathy for the students at Harvard. Perhaps they should have gone to a state school rather than the most elite University in the United States?
4
Right. I could have played for the '27 Yankess but went to the Toledo Mudhens so I wouldn't be labeled an elitist.
These kids have plenty going for them and will benefit enormously from attending the best college they can get in,
These kids have plenty going for them and will benefit enormously from attending the best college they can get in,
1
My parents didn't go to college, but they were very intelligent people, and had they had the same educational opportunities that I had growing up, I'm sure they also would've attended college.
In today's generation of helicopter parents, I can understand some of the anxieties of first-generation students, but honestly speaking, by the time you reach college, you should be able to do your own homework and write your own papers. I never noticed the rich kids who had their parents holding their hands throughout, and I can only feel sorry for them since they lost some of their independence along the way.
In today's generation of helicopter parents, I can understand some of the anxieties of first-generation students, but honestly speaking, by the time you reach college, you should be able to do your own homework and write your own papers. I never noticed the rich kids who had their parents holding their hands throughout, and I can only feel sorry for them since they lost some of their independence along the way.
1
so why do you never mention Stanford among elite colleges? 13.3% first generation in 2012. East coast bias?
2
Have these star students read any books or essays by Barbara Kingsolver, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, or Richard Wright? I'm not even going to mention Ellison's "Invisible Man" (way over their heads). If the Cultural Capital is so overwhelming (boots, jackets, and vacations) then go to a State college. If you're mature enough to realize that health and family are more important than money, clothes, and vacations, then you can stay at your elite university and progress. The lack of abstract experiences by these kids is obvious by the naive outlook they have coming to a school essentially for Aristocrats. Life is not fair and people are not born equally - couldn't have read "The Great Gatsby" either.......
2
Second generation born in the US from Poland 1st gen college student....dad was an automechanic mom stayed home mostly but then factory worker. Did not go to an elite school but rather a state school. Didn't like to tone of the article at all. Yes it was really ON ME to study hard, get involved on campus and have a job on campus .... tada .... I think I came out ok.
2
In modern America you're nothing if you're not part of identity group that can wrap yourself in the aura of victimhood.
Do these kids think they're the first "1st generation" kids to stumble upon college?
Do these kids think they're the first "1st generation" kids to stumble upon college?
5
For starters, it is a good thing that first generation students have banded together as it appears they have. It is a valuable movement. Go read the "Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace" because it really does speak to the real issues for those first generation students and the traps. Clearly, these students need more guidance and support in school and afterwards to ensure they don't become disenfranchised, as the first job, etc will have many of the same issues.
I was a first gen student years ago at an Ivy. It was definitely eye opening. And, there was a stark contrast between myself and a lot of my classmates in so many ways, and sure, there were a lot of insecurities. But, I worked hard there, and worked hard after, made a ton of lifelong friends, and I have built a decent life, and have managed to have a positive impact on my extended family.
Fast forward, and as my children are looking at college, the thing they won't have is some of the insecurities and feeling out of place. But, we also worry that they won't benefit from what I had, which is the need to make things happen, a sense of urgency, and that can be a gift. Being without a safety net can be scary, but it can also be a great motivator. One can choose to lament their plight, or they can take advantage of their opportunities, talents, new personal networks, and figure it out.
I was a first gen student years ago at an Ivy. It was definitely eye opening. And, there was a stark contrast between myself and a lot of my classmates in so many ways, and sure, there were a lot of insecurities. But, I worked hard there, and worked hard after, made a ton of lifelong friends, and I have built a decent life, and have managed to have a positive impact on my extended family.
Fast forward, and as my children are looking at college, the thing they won't have is some of the insecurities and feeling out of place. But, we also worry that they won't benefit from what I had, which is the need to make things happen, a sense of urgency, and that can be a gift. Being without a safety net can be scary, but it can also be a great motivator. One can choose to lament their plight, or they can take advantage of their opportunities, talents, new personal networks, and figure it out.
3
As usual, the NYT focuses exclusively on the highest-level schools in the land. Oh well, fair enough I guess. It's a good article. What I'd like to see made explicit is that there are two cultural divides at work here, not one. The first-generation students tend to have experienced less cultural enrichment (hence not knowing Renaissance artists and so forth). They also tend to have been much less affluent - often below the threshold for middle-class family income. Those are NOT the same thing. The financial issue is completely irrelevant to college, really; it's purely a social status thing. And it will be felt by middle-class kids from educated families as well. If your folks earn $75K a year, you aren't wearing $700 jackets to college! And wearing flashy clothes, talking about your ski holidays, etc. is NOT a "middle class value." It's class elitism based on wealth alone. That will always be an issue (it always has been) in elite universities. The goal for the less affluent students is to eliminate the real gap in cultural capital, not to imitate the clueless rich.
5
Anybody else find it ironic that a school with a $30 BILLION endowment can't help this young lady with free textbooks!
9
They gave her free tuition.
There is only one first generation. Thirty years from now -- assuming the kids profiled in this article take advantage of the opportunity they've been given, work hard, make good decisions, and have some good fortune along the way -- their kids will be members of the scorned "privileged" class. No one will have any sympathy for them.
3
If they make good decisions, they will avoid the "privileged" class like the plague. We have enough Kochs and the like.
YES! High time these students united for support and became proud of their identity. It was so easy for me, a solidly middle class student with two college graduate parents, and then later to adopt career paths which did NOT lead to big incomes for me or my husband, to be perfectly comfortable around our much more affluent neighbors in an upscale suburb of Boston. AND to pass that along to our sons. it is so much easier to have 'less than' when you don't see yourself as 'lesser than'.
It takes a LOT of learning, wisdom,education and confdence to realize that neither money nor degrees confer ANYTHING of value on most people.
I attended an MBA program that deliberately took non traditional students without college degrees (who by the way were always the top of our class). It is impossible to convince people without college degrees that there isn't any magic in having one.
There is NO magic in life. Just living and learning and accepting yourself. But it helps to have confidence and to be able to 'talk the talk'. it does.
It takes a LOT of learning, wisdom,education and confdence to realize that neither money nor degrees confer ANYTHING of value on most people.
I attended an MBA program that deliberately took non traditional students without college degrees (who by the way were always the top of our class). It is impossible to convince people without college degrees that there isn't any magic in having one.
There is NO magic in life. Just living and learning and accepting yourself. But it helps to have confidence and to be able to 'talk the talk'. it does.
2
My brother (Harvard) and I (UC) were the umpteenth generation to attend college - my brother used our relative who attended Harvard in 1820 as his 'reference'. We nor our family had any money - we both obtained scholarships and worked our way through.
Neither of us attended our universities in order to obtain social preference or membership in 'prestigious groups.' We both chose our universities because they each offered a particular program of study that we wanted. We both wanted to learn from the best people, wanted to have access to the best libraries, most competent professors.
When did attending university become primarily a means of breaking class barriers?
Neither of us attended our universities in order to obtain social preference or membership in 'prestigious groups.' We both chose our universities because they each offered a particular program of study that we wanted. We both wanted to learn from the best people, wanted to have access to the best libraries, most competent professors.
When did attending university become primarily a means of breaking class barriers?
5
First Generation High School and College for some of us from the Baby Boom generation. Any experience, as a student or a worker, you will be surrounded by people who have more or less financial, educational or professional opportunities than you. The incredible opportunity and experience of an Ivy League education should be the focus. I little too much of the poor me I don’t fit with the majority of those at Harvard in the article.
3
A few years ago one of my colleagues suggested that students from the "lesser" universities be taken on field trips to a nearby elite university in order to get to know the people who will be their bosses in the future.
3
Hate to tell you but this is a crock. My first boss was a Cornell grad -- taught me how to dress and swear like a longshoreman. After that, it's been Michigan, Scranton, Nebraska, etc.
Long-term success is not correlated to your undergraduate school.
Mookie. Brown '80
Long-term success is not correlated to your undergraduate school.
Mookie. Brown '80
1
For full disclosure I am white. Neither of my parents completed high school. My dad was a mailman and my mom was a typist for Macy’s before she started a family. I was the first generation in my family to attend college, getting my bachelors degree from Rutgers and Ph.D. from Princeton. In my experience the academic training was only a minor aspect of my education. The most significant thing I learned was how to behave in a middle class/white collar way.
Many, many years later an employer sent me to the Center for Creative leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina to take their core leadership program for corporate managers. At the end of the program we received peer feedback from our classmates. When my turn came they sat me down and told me that “nobody likes you rich New England snobs who think they are better than everyone else”. For better or worse I had finally mastered how to behave like an Ivy League student.
Many, many years later an employer sent me to the Center for Creative leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina to take their core leadership program for corporate managers. At the end of the program we received peer feedback from our classmates. When my turn came they sat me down and told me that “nobody likes you rich New England snobs who think they are better than everyone else”. For better or worse I had finally mastered how to behave like an Ivy League student.
69
I write this from my office on a fairly large PUBLIC and CITY supported campus in NYC where we serve with unabashed pride almost 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students. I work every single solitary day with privilege to serve the children of working class and immigrant families. As I read this article, with tears in my eyes, I could not help but think of all my beautiful students, who come from every corner of this Earth, and what an article that featured first-gen students who attend PUBLIC and STATE institutions might have more powerfully benefitted their own lives. While the stories of the students profiled are empowering and uplifting, I had to remind myself continually: why does every single education article in the NYT focus on the Ivy bloody League colleges? The overwhelming majority of students who are on college campuses right now are in attendance at PUBLIC and STATE institutions.
9
What an inspiring story. Kudos to the students who have organized themselves to create a support group to both help themselves and bring awareness to the more fortunate students (my daughter and myself included) about economic diversity.
This is truly a front page story worthy of the NY Times, unlike the article a few weeks ago highlighting the role of pre-teens and teenagers helping parents choose multi-million dollar NYC condos.
This is truly a front page story worthy of the NY Times, unlike the article a few weeks ago highlighting the role of pre-teens and teenagers helping parents choose multi-million dollar NYC condos.
2
A half hour before senior night 2002, Trinity College, I scribbled my signature onto the final lines of a half-baked run form in the EMS room of a local emergency department. My partner beckoned for me to "step it up." End of shift. The ambulance weaved through rush hour traffic, no lights, no siren, but clearly on a mission. It pulled up outside of Cook Dormitory in time for me to have shoved my uniform shirt into a backpack and burst out the passenger door.
I, too, was a First-Gen. No welcoming committee, no arrival gifts. I worked two demanding EMS jobs over four years, studying alongside the wealthy and privileged. School would end, work begin. That was life. I had grown up in a housing project, in a dead and rusted former industrial hub. My mother was single, I was an only child, and by some miracle, I met the right people at the right time, said the right things and did the right work to earn my way into college. No sports, some grants, some loans and maximal work; that was my recipe.
Four months later, I nervously tapped my foot in the back row of an orientation session at Yale's Harkness Hall. The clock inched towards six thirty, and I had to get going. I burst out the door, into my car, threw on my job shirt and made it through the door of the station just in time to hear those familiar words: "Medic unit on the air.."
Thirteen years later, I'm glad it went the way it did. I'm as good at hurriedly ripping of my lab coat and stethoscope as I was my uniform shirts.
I, too, was a First-Gen. No welcoming committee, no arrival gifts. I worked two demanding EMS jobs over four years, studying alongside the wealthy and privileged. School would end, work begin. That was life. I had grown up in a housing project, in a dead and rusted former industrial hub. My mother was single, I was an only child, and by some miracle, I met the right people at the right time, said the right things and did the right work to earn my way into college. No sports, some grants, some loans and maximal work; that was my recipe.
Four months later, I nervously tapped my foot in the back row of an orientation session at Yale's Harkness Hall. The clock inched towards six thirty, and I had to get going. I burst out the door, into my car, threw on my job shirt and made it through the door of the station just in time to hear those familiar words: "Medic unit on the air.."
Thirteen years later, I'm glad it went the way it did. I'm as good at hurriedly ripping of my lab coat and stethoscope as I was my uniform shirts.
5
Almost all 1st generation have histories of hard work. Unfortunately many at elite schools have no history of hard work. A good idea would be to require those privileged kids who make fun of first generation students to spend 8 hours at one of the jobs the first generation student had to do to raise money so he and his family could eat and pay the rent.
2
I think you might be misunderstanding the challenges of first-gen students. As I understand it, rarely does anyone make fun of first-gen students. Instead, there are a bunch of clueless statements made. To use an example from the article, the first-gen student who went to the reception at the Beverly Hills mansion and his father was asked where he went to undergrad. Or classmates will ask where you are going for spring break or what (unpaid) internships you're doing this summer. It can be as simple as not being able to join a Greek life organization because you can't afford the dues.
1
"Ms. Barros was embarrassed during a history discussion about inequality in which the teaching fellow gave students a list of 20 items, from trust funds to college savings plans, and told them to award themselves a point for each. The instructor asked students to raise their hands as he called out totals — 10 privilege points, 11, 12 — so he could mark them on the board. “The numbers didn’t tally up” to the number of students in the class, said Ms. Barros, who with only a single point kept her hand down."
So what kind of lesson was that supposed to be? As a faculty member at a university, I can't imagine what this professor was thinking!! You have no idea the background of the students in front of you; to ask them to reveal details of their financial background in class is extremely insensitive. And some of these posters are wondering why these students feel stigmatized.
We are similar support groups for some (but not all) of the first gen students at my university. For those who say they don't need (or didn't need support, because of course, they pulled themselves up without any assistance from anyone) good for you. However, for those that need it, I'm glad its there.
So what kind of lesson was that supposed to be? As a faculty member at a university, I can't imagine what this professor was thinking!! You have no idea the background of the students in front of you; to ask them to reveal details of their financial background in class is extremely insensitive. And some of these posters are wondering why these students feel stigmatized.
We are similar support groups for some (but not all) of the first gen students at my university. For those who say they don't need (or didn't need support, because of course, they pulled themselves up without any assistance from anyone) good for you. However, for those that need it, I'm glad its there.
6
I'm currently reading the massive autobiography of an esteemed man who was a first-generation college student in the 1920s - Williams and Yale, no less. His family fled the repression of the Ottoman Empire and settled in New York. At Williams, he was not considered worthy of rushing by any fraternity, but he was hired to wait on tables by one of them. And so on his story went.
The man I'm referring to is the late Elia Kazan, director of A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, On the Waterfront, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Splendor in the Grass, and many other plays and films.
The man I'm referring to is the late Elia Kazan, director of A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, On the Waterfront, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Splendor in the Grass, and many other plays and films.
3
I'm a first gen who worked full-time, carried a full load, and toughed it out. I'll be paying on my student loans for the rest of my life, but it was worth it. I started at a community college and am very proud of that. I also don't do a lot of navel-gazing about it. I did it and you can to. Now do it.
4
These kids had better start to develop thicker skins. There is only one first generation. Thirty years from now -- assuming these kids take advantage of the opportunities they have been given, work hard, make good decisions, and have some good fortune along the way -- their kids will be part of the scorned "privileged" class, and no one will have any sympathy for them.
1
Great article and shedding some light on the experience of so many others. Can we also look at non-Ivy league schools for this as well? Having attended Trinity College, I faced similar social issues. It would be unfortunate for this to only relate to the IVY league. While this is a significant small group in the country's most expensive and exclusive universities, it would be interesting to look at how many other institutions across the country had similar issues. Also, are there universities that cater directly to first generation students?
3
Yes. The university of Wisconsin at Madison for one. The NYTimes always focuses on the Ivies, the hang-up of the East it seems. I went to the University of Michigan in the 1950's at a time when they were supportive and maintained a highly-organized dormitory system that was really competitive with sororities and fraternities socially. I worked 15 or 20 hours a week and full time summers which enabled me to pay my own way. Of course, tuition was $90/semester at a time when the minimum wage was 50 cents/hour.
Sorry to be so critical. But historically "first generation" in this country means first generation born here. These kids sound whiny to me. Instead of being enormously grateful to have access to "elite" institutions they mind the fact that other kids' parents are richer. It seems really sad they haven't understood that before registration. The truth is that nothing stops them from beating the kids of privilege, which is the real American story. Or else going to school elsewhere, as Malcolm Gladwell has suggested.
3
Since the mid-1960s, the US Department of Education and colleges and universities have used the term "first generation" to refer to students who did not have a parent that had completed a baccalaureate degree. I am not sure where you got the idea that these students are whiny or ungrateful. They were merely describing and discussing the differences between themselves and other students who came from more affluent backgrounds, the same way you might talk about how Tampa or Miami is different from Brooklyn. I was a first-generation student too, and had to adjust to life on a different budget from others in my schools (some students had more, some students had less), and eventually developed the social capital that led to other opportunities for travel and work experiences. (Social capital is about building and sustaining a network of people who can mentor, guide, and help open doors for you to make the changes you want to make to enter the marketplace or a different social circle, or both. Affluent students may be farther along in having social capital but other students can develop it and as you say, surpass those who had more to start with)
I don't think its the kids who are whiny. I think it's the writer who is whining on what she believes is their behalf. I think we're seeing her issues far more than theirs. She spun their stories.
1
Great article, but why does the Times keep focusing on elite schools? The vast majority of low-income first gen students go to public institutions that aren't as glamorous as Harvard, and they face greater challenges. I was one of those students years ago at Berkeley. Not only did I work 20 hours a week (even with free tuition), but I had attended a mediocre LA high school and was woefully unprepared academically. I had no idea how to study and almost flunked out my first semester. There were NO academic or social support systems in those days--instead colleges sought to "weed out" the poorly prepared. I am still amazed that I made it through. At a high school reunion years later, I learned that most of my peers had not been as lucky. They either flunked out or felt so out of place in college that they simply left. Even now, the majority of low-income college students don't complete four-year degrees.
Overall, have stopped viewing their mission as "weeding out." They now provide some social and academic support, although, unlike the elite schools, most institutions have only a very limited budget. Few dollars and student reluctance to seek help lead to high drop-out rates. The good news in this article is that low-income first gen students at elite schools with lots of academic support are banding together to feel comfortable on campus. Hopefully, it will also spread elsewhere and translate into more resources for help and higher grad rates.
Overall, have stopped viewing their mission as "weeding out." They now provide some social and academic support, although, unlike the elite schools, most institutions have only a very limited budget. Few dollars and student reluctance to seek help lead to high drop-out rates. The good news in this article is that low-income first gen students at elite schools with lots of academic support are banding together to feel comfortable on campus. Hopefully, it will also spread elsewhere and translate into more resources for help and higher grad rates.
8
Good for the students who made it into these elite schools. Congratulations. After paying my own way through undergrad and graduate school, I've learned that for the vast majority, you make your own luck. A few get most everything handed to them and many of them do little that is meaningful in life. The students described here know what hard work is and I have no doubt will make a meaningful contribution to this planet. Good luck.
3
I cried when I read this story because I remember feeling like I was living between two worlds when I went to college. I still do sometimes.
3
Yeah … but! So what? I went to Yale Graduate School in the early 60’s. I had a full fellowship and lived in the ghetto area of New Haven. My best friend was a Dartmouth graduate who was in Yale Law School. My other best friend was a Yale graduate with an apartment on Sutton Place in New York. Sure, they made fun of me, but also, they lent me their cars to go meet girls at Sarah Lawrence on weekends, they pulled out their dads Diners’ Club cards to pay for food at Mory’s, in the meantime complaining, “OK, Phil, I want to eat, if I have to pay for yours too, I will charge it to my dad. Come on, man, how come you are so poor?” One of these guys is a lifelong New York Yale Club member. We see each other when I am in New York visiting my son, daughter-in-law and twin grandsons in Brooklyn. Me and my old Yalie buddies, we get along just fine. Us poor students, we didn’t have time to figure out if we fit in.
5
How kind of them to ignore your disadvantages. They sound like real princes.
Great article, but why does the Times keep focusing on elite schools?(Yesterday it was an award for elite schools--75%+ grad rates--that attract low-income students.) The vast majority of low-income first gen students go to public institutions that aren't as glamorous as Harvard, and face greater challenges. I was one of those students years ago at Berkeley. Not only did I work 20 hours a week (even with free tuition), but I had attended a mediocre LA high school and was woefully unprepared academically. I had no idea how to study and almost flunked out my first semester. There were NO academic or social support systems in those days--colleges sought to "weed out." I am still amazed that I made it through. At a high school reunion years later, I learned that most of my peers had not been as lucky. They either flunked out or felt so out of place in college that they simply left. Even now, the majority of low-income college students don't complete four-year degrees.
For many years, colleges have provided some social and academic support, although, unlike the elite schools, most institutions have only a very limited budget. Few dollars and student reluctance to seek help lead to high drop-out rates.
The good news in this article is that low-income first gen students at elite schools with lots of academic support are banding together to feel comfortable on campus. Hopefully, it will also spread elsewhere and translate into more resources for help and higher grad rates.
For many years, colleges have provided some social and academic support, although, unlike the elite schools, most institutions have only a very limited budget. Few dollars and student reluctance to seek help lead to high drop-out rates.
The good news in this article is that low-income first gen students at elite schools with lots of academic support are banding together to feel comfortable on campus. Hopefully, it will also spread elsewhere and translate into more resources for help and higher grad rates.
3
I once had a very hard working and bright Latino student in my A.P. Physics class who received a full ride to M.I.T. He was reluuctant to accept because the concerns raised in this article. I told him go there and work like you have here and someday some ofthe elites will be will come to you forr an interview.
He is doing very well.
He is doing very well.
8
Reading through these comments makes the case for what these universities are trying to do. The attitudes expressed in these comments largely reflect the readership of the New York Times – white, educated, and privileged. I laud these schools for recognizing and addressing the vast social capital inequities that exist for these kids.This article brought to the surface some long buried and painful memories of being a economically struggling, 1st gen kid at a large, prestigious, private urban university. To look at me now, 30 some years later, as a very professionally successful white woman, one would never know the background I came from. My parents, divorced and consumed with their own problems, financial and personal, said essentially, well, good for you and good luck. I prided myself on self-reliance, but I was woefully unprepared to deal with what lie ahead. I had the academic chops to succeed, far better than most of the rich kids, but they had the social and economic leg up. Public schools were far better then than now, and I had 2 teachers who took an interest and helped me through the admissions process. I was very determined to get out of the one horse state I was from, and the guidance counselor (one for 600 kids) knew nothing other than the state school application process. Fortunately sophomore year I got a campus job with a professor (the first openly gay person I knew) and as a first gen college grad, he helped me tremendously. I was one of the lucky ones.
60
In my experience, the colleges' efforts to help first-gen students actually end up perpetuating the divide and stoke animosity and insecurities as the first-gen students end up clustering and feeling excluded from the affluent peer groups.
Any first-gen student group should focus on cultivating soft skills and how to mesh with more affluent peers. A designer winter jacket is the least of their problems. Perhaps how not to be so narrow-minded with regard to music, food, and really articulating the "money" paths more affluent peers are streamlined to conquer would be helpful in a seminar format.
Any first-gen student group should focus on cultivating soft skills and how to mesh with more affluent peers. A designer winter jacket is the least of their problems. Perhaps how not to be so narrow-minded with regard to music, food, and really articulating the "money" paths more affluent peers are streamlined to conquer would be helpful in a seminar format.
2
I think most of the nasty comments here are not coming from the most privileged people, actually. Rather, they are coming from threatened middle-class readers who think that if they just criticize the poor harshly enough, that will magically preserve them from falling into their ranks. For such people, it's not enough that these young students have worked tremendously hard to gain a place at one of America's top universities (and although normally the bitter are quick to claim that true merit is rewarded in America, note the intimation in the air that a scholarship is a handout); they must be able, as very young adults, to instantly transition to a completely different social and academic milieu and negotiate without difficulty the tension between that world and home. All while carrying a heavy courseload. Anything less, and they are NOT BOOTSTRAPPING HARD ENOUGH, darnit.
Glad to see my first response to this article echoed by many others: why the Ivy focus? Ivy, Ivy, Ivy. You want a compelling story on first gen students? Go to a community college. See what struggle really is.
91
There are many kinds of stories worth telling. The struggle these students face is not the same as the struggle that first gen community college students face, but both are worth talking about. My source? I was first a first gen, poor student at a minor regional school for undergrad -- no parental support due to drug convictions and jail time -- and then I one of these fish-out-of water students in an elite grad program. Now I've been a professor to both types of first gen students -- at CUNY and at Wesleyan. I do what I can to help the students who may not have come with all of the resources of their peers, but although I know they struggle financially, socially, and (only sometimes, despite what these commentators seem to assume) academically, it is often hard for me to identify them without putting them on the spot when they would prefer, as I once did, to go undetected. I am glad these kinds of programs exist today so that they can help people without resources -- for a plane ticket home at Christmas, for textbooks, for dress clothes for an interview, for the social support not to feel stigmatized -- understand, through talking to others in their situatuon, that they do have what it takes to succeed.
My guess is elite colleges tend to have a higher concentration of upper middle class students. So first gens are more likely to feel socially isolated. First generation community college students definitely face significant challenges, but probably far less social isolation.
Eric, i think you are missing the point. In community colleges you are not going to have 30% of your class have trust funds.
I remember counseling a troubled, first generation student at an Ivy league school. "You're the only prof with whom I can communicate."
Well, I'm a first generation student myself. The "fish out of water" feeling never goes away -- even when you're faculty. It never gets any easier as each batch of "first gen" students must each confront the academic and cultural challenges. Too often, they face these challenges alone and family members back home just don't understand.
Well, I'm a first generation student myself. The "fish out of water" feeling never goes away -- even when you're faculty. It never gets any easier as each batch of "first gen" students must each confront the academic and cultural challenges. Too often, they face these challenges alone and family members back home just don't understand.
26
This article, while making some good points, has the unpleasant smell of entitlement about it. Having grown up in Brooklyn, the child of European Jewish immigrants, I was the first in our family to attend college. Further, all the children of Italian and Irish immigrants I grew up with were the first as well. We were all lower middle class and most were actually poor, though we didn’t think of ourselves that way. And no, we didn’t come of age at the turn of the 20th century, or the 1950s for the matter, but in the 1980s. I regularly compared notes with my friends, and though our ethnic backgrounds varied, our experiences were the same, we were outsiders when we attended some of the most prestigious universities in the country and were often shunted into classes that were beneath us when we first began school. Still, we never left “a talk on socioeconomics cheering 'It’s not our fault!’ as part sharing and part empowerment.” (How humiliating would have that been for our families?) Somehow, we all did incredibly well without having to remind everyone how disadvantaged we were. I’m not big on self-pity, and this article serves it up by the boatloads.
22
It's too your credit you overcame these obstacles. I know of too many examples of people who dropped out of college because the issues this article addresses were not addressed or understood by their colleges. People who overcome obstacles should take care not to fall into the trap of believing that because they overcame the obstacles, anybody who wants help is malingering or self-pitying.
1
Couldn't agree with you more.
I am also first generation; as are my older sisters. Also had similar experiences, only I am older; born in the mid 50's.
My parents came here from the flames of Nazi Europe. We lived in an apartment in Washington Heights...not a subsidized house. My parents worked very hard to assimilate, learn English become part of the larger culture..have us blend in. Why-mostly because they feared to be different. Regardless of reason this was a benefit.
Yes I did feel different growing up then from many of my 2nd & 3rd generation friends through elementary school and even through college. I too went to private college , though nothing so elite as Harvard. There was a time that colleges like Harvard wouldn't even allow too many of kind- Jewish-in, regardless of qualification or ability to pay. Though I was not economically disadvantaged, certainly there were people who had clothing I couldn't (nor wouldn't) imagine purchasing. My sisters, went to State University-why because economically that made sense at that time period.
There have and always will be class differences, especially when one chooses to go to school at an elite university.
I am also first generation; as are my older sisters. Also had similar experiences, only I am older; born in the mid 50's.
My parents came here from the flames of Nazi Europe. We lived in an apartment in Washington Heights...not a subsidized house. My parents worked very hard to assimilate, learn English become part of the larger culture..have us blend in. Why-mostly because they feared to be different. Regardless of reason this was a benefit.
Yes I did feel different growing up then from many of my 2nd & 3rd generation friends through elementary school and even through college. I too went to private college , though nothing so elite as Harvard. There was a time that colleges like Harvard wouldn't even allow too many of kind- Jewish-in, regardless of qualification or ability to pay. Though I was not economically disadvantaged, certainly there were people who had clothing I couldn't (nor wouldn't) imagine purchasing. My sisters, went to State University-why because economically that made sense at that time period.
There have and always will be class differences, especially when one chooses to go to school at an elite university.
2
Yep, it's a dog-eat-dog world out there. Better get used to it 'cause it gets worse. One thing to remember, though, is that the "rich kids" have their problems, too, as one might surmise from the need to buy $700.00 jackets.
6
This article is simply another attempt to create identity politics hatred and controversy. Foment discontent among rich and poor. It is so wrong on so many levels, as journalism goes, it is as bad as the worst of Rolling Stone's work.
It's not enough that these kids are going to Harvard, and aren't paying a cent for it. We need to solve attend to their feelings. Well, here's one solution to their plight: to assuage the insecurity that comes with being a poor person among the rich, the scholarships and college loan programs should grant the parents enough money to make over their house, buy nice clothing, and go to college themselves, four years before their children attend college. That way these first generation college students will feel better when they get to school.
Someone should inform these students that once they go to Harvard and start making more money, we can hate them just like we hate the rich people, right?
By the way, I'm a 50% second generation college graduate -- my father went to a rural college but my mother didn't graduate from high school, and neither of my brothers went to college. My dad's father was a farmer. After college my father made enough money as a shoe salesman that we could live in a decent house and I could go to college. You can hate me for that.
Do you think I feel bad for the first generation's sensitivities in not being rich? No. Do I care that people have more money than me? Also, no. Absolutely not.
It's not enough that these kids are going to Harvard, and aren't paying a cent for it. We need to solve attend to their feelings. Well, here's one solution to their plight: to assuage the insecurity that comes with being a poor person among the rich, the scholarships and college loan programs should grant the parents enough money to make over their house, buy nice clothing, and go to college themselves, four years before their children attend college. That way these first generation college students will feel better when they get to school.
Someone should inform these students that once they go to Harvard and start making more money, we can hate them just like we hate the rich people, right?
By the way, I'm a 50% second generation college graduate -- my father went to a rural college but my mother didn't graduate from high school, and neither of my brothers went to college. My dad's father was a farmer. After college my father made enough money as a shoe salesman that we could live in a decent house and I could go to college. You can hate me for that.
Do you think I feel bad for the first generation's sensitivities in not being rich? No. Do I care that people have more money than me? Also, no. Absolutely not.
13
Who said these students are not paying? I am sure many are saddled with student loans and have to work one or two jobs on top of their studies.
2
Gee, Hooey: Absolutely no rage at all your comment, none at all. Thanks for such an understated emotional response.
1
I read nothing in this article of the hostility that I read in your response. Is awareness of others' disadvantages and the value to them of community support really such an imposition?
2
Affirmative action at colleges should be based on class, not race.
It would also help is the 85% of the non-first geners that these colleges admit were not all so obscenely wealthy. Those who can pay full freight can go to these elite private colleges. So can many of these first generation kids who have no money, thanks to generous financial age. Those kids with family income in the middle can't pay full freight yet don't get enough financial aid to afford to go these institutions.
It would also help is the 85% of the non-first geners that these colleges admit were not all so obscenely wealthy. Those who can pay full freight can go to these elite private colleges. So can many of these first generation kids who have no money, thanks to generous financial age. Those kids with family income in the middle can't pay full freight yet don't get enough financial aid to afford to go these institutions.
6
A decent article, but seemed more insightful about the disconnect happening with the entitled and privileged students/faculty at these elite institutions than the first-gen students themselves. This seems to posit the idea that this is a new phenomenon which campus officials and advisers are just 'discovering' and are excited to create new support groups and programs to put in their marketing brochures.
My has work in higher education administration for a decade now and I can tell you this is nothing new. This article should instead be about how our college system has continued to fail these hard-working and often overlooked students who have the capacity to change the world. Maybe some change can occur if these students stopped fulfilling the recruitment check box role admissions staff see them as, and are able to leverage the power of collective invested self-interest.
My has work in higher education administration for a decade now and I can tell you this is nothing new. This article should instead be about how our college system has continued to fail these hard-working and often overlooked students who have the capacity to change the world. Maybe some change can occur if these students stopped fulfilling the recruitment check box role admissions staff see them as, and are able to leverage the power of collective invested self-interest.
7
I agree being poor among rich classmates is nothing new. Many of us lacked the means to travel on Spring Break especially since most of us could not leave our second and third shift jobs during college. The focus should be more on how colleges can assist rather than self pity for being poor.
2
This story was painfully familiar, especially as a first-gen not only in college, but now getting a PhD. Many seem to think that the students in the story are not grateful for the opportunities they have, but I am sure they are acutely aware of them. Everything in their past, their family, old friends and neighborhood remind them of it. Furthermore, how about a little compassion? It's not easy to do it all on your own, folks!
14
It's not easy and it does not get easier when you are encouraged to wallow in self pity because you are 'uncomfortable'.
1
No one ever said it was 'easy'.
Most worthwhile things in life are not.
Most worthwhile things in life are not.
1
I understand that the differences of first-gen students is vast at Ivy League and other so-called elite institutions. I taught at a small liberal arts school for years and both witnessed and experienced it (as a first-gen student who came from a state-school background simply could never understand the rituals of wealth and networking that were viewed as priorities to work and learning). However, this would be a much richer article had it included larger state schools where first-gen students proliferate and, in my experience, are also just as confused by things like fraternity and sorority life or the need to attend office hours and connect. I have taught at three of these schools and the one I am at now the great majority of my students are first generation and you can see the same patterns at work here: the second and third generation students simply know more about college. This needs to be a national conversation, not one that is solely located at northeastern pools of wealth.
13
I was the first to go to college. I well remember the experience. I cried for weeks. I was always on the margins socially. And I, too, was amazed by the clothes (and shoes) my fellow students wore. But I made lifelong friends with a few others who were just like me.
7
First-genners? Wow, those who are different at any school always somehow find each other and bond. I would not have fit any of the profiles in this article, and given how this conversation seems to be going if I were going to school now I wouldn't fit in either group.... But I know and had these conversations. Professors can be clueless with questions that put neon signs over some, and that is a problem. Privilege - whether it be financial, experiential, racial, or whatever - is always oblivious.
"When do social hurdles get in the way?" It's a cold, hard fact that they always get in the way. Finding ways to even the playing field is great. Creating more exclusive groups, maybe not so much?
"When do social hurdles get in the way?" It's a cold, hard fact that they always get in the way. Finding ways to even the playing field is great. Creating more exclusive groups, maybe not so much?
3
I come from a family of scholars. Not so much for my undergrad (though I did have a free tuition scholarship at a small private liberal arts school), but for grad schools and faculty positions, I've turned down Ivy League institutions multiple times. I picked the U of WA initially for a faculty position and then I'm at SUNY Buffalo to help with their UB 2020 program. Throughout all this, I've followed what I thought was best for the world and did my best to ignore stuff like rankings, etc. I do my best to get out of my comfort zone in life and mix as much as possible - it's what I think is needed to lead to a more egalitarian society. If all the privileged (however you define it) it stuck to each other and all the people at the other end (however you define it) of the spectrum stick with their respective groups, then the inequalities exacerbate.
For my own mentees, I advise them to consider things like rankings since that's the world we live in and I'd be remiss as an adviser if I didn't inform them of the realities, but I also inform them that a focus on rankings, status, fame, power, and money aren't the path to happiness. If you do good things, you'll land on your feet and that should be enough. If you're lucky, you'll go beyond your 15 minutes but that is rarely something you have a lot of control over.
For my own mentees, I advise them to consider things like rankings since that's the world we live in and I'd be remiss as an adviser if I didn't inform them of the realities, but I also inform them that a focus on rankings, status, fame, power, and money aren't the path to happiness. If you do good things, you'll land on your feet and that should be enough. If you're lucky, you'll go beyond your 15 minutes but that is rarely something you have a lot of control over.
3
One advantage first gen students likely have is that they get more out of their education than those from families where college degrees are expected and the norm. My family was middle class, but education was assumed and I probably did not get enough out of my elite university as I should have as I was caught up in having fun etc.
2
It is sooo deeply comforting to know that the ONLY schools that matter are in the Ivy League. It seems that the folks who write for "Education Life" don't actually realize that there are universities in the US that aren't located in New England or Palo Alto.
Just a wild guess, but I'd bet there are a lot of first generation students at large public universities who also have compelling stories.
Just a wild guess, but I'd bet there are a lot of first generation students at large public universities who also have compelling stories.
18
Well, there's also the situation where family and friends of the first gen student are resentful that he/she is getting the opportunity to move on and make a better life. I think "crabs in a barrel" syndrome is much harder to deal with than seeing wealthy students arrive in limos, wearing $1000 jackets and joining elite eating clubs.
4
I came from a similar background and an enlightening book that I found on this subject is "Limbo" by Alfred Lubrano. I never found my "first generation" folks when I went to Columbia and reading this book after my experience really hit home for me.
I'm glad there is more coverage on this subject for us "Straddlers".
I'm glad there is more coverage on this subject for us "Straddlers".
1
Great recommendation!
I was a first generation college student in the mid 80's. I took out loans to pay and stayed local the frist 2 years and transferred for my last 2 years to save money. I made great friends and never knew how much money others had versus what my family didn't have. I had fun and studied hard. I graduated and started working at the bottom of the ladder and continued to move up through hard work, no connections. I know this doesn't happen for everyone but it seems with the class warfare our president started there are too many excuses constantly used by people today.
2
I hope that you lose the class war that Ronald Reagan started.
6
This article says nothing about the current President. Nor is there a discussion of class warfare. Its hard to be poor at the elite colleges and it always has been.
3
Please provide examples of the class warfare you refer to.
The precious irony in this article is lost in its contents. It is the fact that Ivy League colleges are at the pinnacle of our very unequal society. The poorer students who are admitted for "balance" and to bolster the image of Ivy League colleges as something more than finishing school for the American elite are provided a Faustian bargain which no one can be expected to resist.
These poor students soon to be much better off because of their Harvard, or Yale or Brown pedigree serve a much larger purpose of reinforcing the true purpose of the elite universities which is the privileges they offer the wealthy and powerful.
These poor students soon to be much better off because of their Harvard, or Yale or Brown pedigree serve a much larger purpose of reinforcing the true purpose of the elite universities which is the privileges they offer the wealthy and powerful.
3
No, they are admitted because they are very good students who promise to become leading members of our national community.
3
As long as there have been colleges there have been first-generation students and first-generation poor students; this is not a recent invention. A few years ago I was at a graduation at the U. of Washington and the main outside speaker was Sherman Alexie; at one point he asked all the first-generation graduates to stand and be acknowledged, and everyone applauded.
11
As someone who was an alumni interviewer for an Ivy League college for 30 years, I can only say "hurray." Over the years I applauded my alma mater for its efforts to open doors to students who were "first gen," but I worried a lot about what would happen to them when they showed up on campus surrounded by kids from privileged backgrounds. Minority students could count on the support of Black and Latino campus groups, but as the article points out, "first gen" crosses ethnic lines. I am relieved that this is now recognized and addressed.
13
"Middle-class values" are the anchor of a healthy society.
As the great-grandchild of people who fled the Russian Empire with next to nothing, I am extremely glad to have been born into a modest level of the middle class. My son is the first college grad on my side of the family. He went to an Ivy, with plenty of financial aid, and on a campus often derided for being almost a caricature of wealth and privilege.
His particular mixed ethnic heritage makes him one of the rarest of minorities in this or any other country.
He was fine; didn't suffer any pangs of envy or displacement because he didn't have the trappings of wealth and privilege; worked on campus during breaks and vacations so he could help pay his tuition and be self-sufficient in personal expenses, and he managed to find a diverse group of wonderful people to become friends with.
As in everything in life, attitude matters.
As the great-grandchild of people who fled the Russian Empire with next to nothing, I am extremely glad to have been born into a modest level of the middle class. My son is the first college grad on my side of the family. He went to an Ivy, with plenty of financial aid, and on a campus often derided for being almost a caricature of wealth and privilege.
His particular mixed ethnic heritage makes him one of the rarest of minorities in this or any other country.
He was fine; didn't suffer any pangs of envy or displacement because he didn't have the trappings of wealth and privilege; worked on campus during breaks and vacations so he could help pay his tuition and be self-sufficient in personal expenses, and he managed to find a diverse group of wonderful people to become friends with.
As in everything in life, attitude matters.
11
Only in America is this a big deal. When I first went to a state university in the 1980's, more than half of us were first generation. Here we are 30 years later and America's class system has become so hardened, our lives so economically (and racially) segregated, that we are amazed to have first generation students on an elite college campus. As if these kids were from Mars or something. For them to have this kind of special status is a sad commentary on our society.
1
I was a first gen student at Yale 1991 - 1995, and attended on 100% financial aid. My parents were worried that I would feel out of place among my more affluent peers, but that really was not the case. The residential college system ensured that I was fully integrated into student life. Since most Yale students live on campus and eat in the dining halls, the quality of my on-campus life was no different than that of anyone else. I had a part-time job in the library, which provided me with ample spending money. I don't recall the student body being particularly well-dressed, but I was so clueless about fashion and brand names that I might have missed something.
The socioeconomic differences between the majority of my peers and me became more obvious when we shared our life experiences or discussed off-campus activities. I had never taken a vacation involving air travel and hotel stays. I had never left the United States. I spent the summer after freshman year as a cashier at CVS. My father had been to jail more than once and was frequently unemployed. Once, I could not join my friends at Mory's, a private club adjacent to campus, because I did not have the requisite sport coat. That stung.
My rare feelings of socioeconomic inadequacy were small rumples in an otherwise enchanting experience. I cherish my Yale years, which were some of the most formative years of my life. Kudos to Yale for being accessible to first gen and low income students!
The socioeconomic differences between the majority of my peers and me became more obvious when we shared our life experiences or discussed off-campus activities. I had never taken a vacation involving air travel and hotel stays. I had never left the United States. I spent the summer after freshman year as a cashier at CVS. My father had been to jail more than once and was frequently unemployed. Once, I could not join my friends at Mory's, a private club adjacent to campus, because I did not have the requisite sport coat. That stung.
My rare feelings of socioeconomic inadequacy were small rumples in an otherwise enchanting experience. I cherish my Yale years, which were some of the most formative years of my life. Kudos to Yale for being accessible to first gen and low income students!
6
'...Once, I could not join my friends at Mory's, a private club adjacent to campus, because I did not have the requisite sport coat...'
And yet, no doubt, if you had told a friend that you did not have a jacket, someone would have gladly loaned you one.
Most people are decent and kind and economic status does not change this.
And yet, no doubt, if you had told a friend that you did not have a jacket, someone would have gladly loaned you one.
Most people are decent and kind and economic status does not change this.
1
having 2 parents who never finished high school, I entered college in 1970. Differences in social classes was nothing new. There was plenty of difference in high school.
What was different was the freedom to choose classes that pushed my brain. I still worked a job just like in high school. The difference there was I worked longer hours. I was well aware of the people who went on extravagant vacations or had great cars, but it was nothing new.
What drove me was the desire to afford vacations or new cars. It took 5 years because I could not afford to go full time, but I did it. Then I worked to get a masters degree then a PHD and finally my MD.
Was I ever resentful of others who had it easier? Of course, but I had the opportunity to advance, something that is probably easier to do in our wonderful country then anywhere else in this world.
What was different was the freedom to choose classes that pushed my brain. I still worked a job just like in high school. The difference there was I worked longer hours. I was well aware of the people who went on extravagant vacations or had great cars, but it was nothing new.
What drove me was the desire to afford vacations or new cars. It took 5 years because I could not afford to go full time, but I did it. Then I worked to get a masters degree then a PHD and finally my MD.
Was I ever resentful of others who had it easier? Of course, but I had the opportunity to advance, something that is probably easier to do in our wonderful country then anywhere else in this world.
1
Actually, if you have the ability and drive it is much easier to "advance" in some other countries these days. I am thinking of several European countries where tuition is free through medical school, students may work some but are entitled to the equivalent of stipends, and all workers (read parents) earn a living wage. And these are not places that limit university education to a small minority of their population; the better systems also offer robust technical/vocational education to those who don't do university.
This is an area where the myth of American exceptionalism is outdated.
This is an area where the myth of American exceptionalism is outdated.
1
Thank you for publishing this. Yesterday I forwarded the article about Ms. Moskowitz's Success Schools to a friend and suggested to him that the pressure to produce grades from kids from economically deprived backgrounds did not make them the psychological equal of kids they would find in college and that they might have to deal eventually with other psychological issues stemming from economic disparity. I also suggested to him that most of the SS graduates might not be able to attend college even if they had the grades simply because they were priced out and that too might generate anger.
I came from a less than middle class background and although my grades were top notch, the psychological stress of that background dogged everything I did well into midlife. I am very grateful for my college education (not in an Ivy) but there is emotional fallout for kids that is always ignored by people, including the students, who think that good grades solve all problems. And sometimes the stress of getting those grades are themselves a problem that produces anger and resentment. Recognizing those things is at least a start for dealing with them.
I came from a less than middle class background and although my grades were top notch, the psychological stress of that background dogged everything I did well into midlife. I am very grateful for my college education (not in an Ivy) but there is emotional fallout for kids that is always ignored by people, including the students, who think that good grades solve all problems. And sometimes the stress of getting those grades are themselves a problem that produces anger and resentment. Recognizing those things is at least a start for dealing with them.
2
I was a "first generation" in the 1970's although there was no word for it at the time. I worked, studied and never worried about where other students came from. I didn't have spring vacations in Florida or even come home for Christmas vacation every year. I had to save up money for airfare. My college and grad school experiences made me appreciate my ability to pay for and enjoy these luxuries as an adult. I feel the worst thing an adult can have is a chip on his or her shoulder carrying the "burden" of not being raised with as much materially as another. I knew my parents loved me and gave me all they could. I am sure the students in this article feel the same. I paid my parents back by making the most of the opportunities presented to me which I hope all these students will also do. Having the love and support of your family should be the definition of "privileged" and making the most of opportunity makes one "fortunate". I am both. These students are also.
3
I was a first-gen student at Dartmouth in the late 1990s (first person from my rural Appalachian high school to attend an Ivy). Despite having many wonderful friends and professors, I often felt alone and was often put in the position of having to educate my peers about not being from wealth. I knew exactly one other first-gen student.
I am so pleased these networks and supports are developing around the country! Thanks for the attention to this issue. I'm inspired to help recruit folks from my community to my two Ivy alma maters.
I am so pleased these networks and supports are developing around the country! Thanks for the attention to this issue. I'm inspired to help recruit folks from my community to my two Ivy alma maters.
4
Forty years ago, I was a first generation student. My dad dropped out of school at 15, my mother graduated from high school, one grandfather was a coal miner and the other was a garbage collector. I was the first child from both branches of the family to go to college. I was also one of 12 children so I paid for everything that I owned or did from the age of 16. I paid my way through a state college working full time and attending class full time. Luckily, I managed a research assistantship that paid my way through graduate school. I could deal with money issues as I had lived my whole life like that. My problem was the total lack of career guidance. I had NO idea about careers, jobs, interviews, internships, and any pathways to getting there. Fortunately, a professor took me under his wing and guided me to graduate school and I received a PhD in chemistry. Otherwise, I would have been clueless. One thing first generation students should learn is how to find a mentor and how to work with them on achieving success in college and beyond. A good mentor should help broaden their world viewpoints and guide them. I didn't even know that there was such a thing as science research and if I did, I was clueless how to get there. Of course, with the internet and its wealth of information, students today are likely to be more knowledgable then forty years ago.
4
A very interesting video piece but the vast majority of 1st generation college students will not be attending these prestigious Ivy League schools.
Why not focus on students struggling at community colleges and state universities where the administration there has far less resources available (and will) to help the first-generation student?
Why not focus on students struggling at community colleges and state universities where the administration there has far less resources available (and will) to help the first-generation student?
1
I agree with the essence of the article and it transcends across cultures, communities and nations . I grew up in Delhi (India)in a village environment with a farming background, but went to a very privileged school only because my father was a teacher there. I worked hard in my studies, but was constantly reminded of a poorer background, whether it was going to birthday party or vacations or just simple things like a school bag, lunches. I tried to compensate by trying to imitate the other privileged children mannerisms or lying about my vacation in Paris or America, but only got ridiculed and mercilessly teased about it. My father belonged to the first generation with a college degree, but had responsibilities of supporting entire joint family. Money was spent only for essential things. I appreciated the education in my later years but grew with a huge complex bordering on depression and anxiety. I have grown into a confident young woman who has graduated with a Masters in Economics and then a Phd in Applied Economics from Pennsylvania State University. But I realize now that meeting groups or individuals with similar background would have helped me a lot mentally and given me more confidence to be comfortable with where I came from.
6
I was a first generation student at an elite school
in it's second class of women -- So not only
was I navigating the intense social and academic pressures of an elite college,losing self-esteem daily
and not completely understanding why and feeling
too proud (at 17)to talk to anyone about it -- but I
found myself in a place itself going through a rough transition from well over a century of all-male education into one that was trying -- but not
always succeeding --in welcoming those first groups
of women they admitted -- It's really heartening to
hear about this First Gen Organization
since I think it is filling a very strong need -- and would have helped me and others whose voices
were and are sorely needed to be heard not only in these elite academic institutions that accept them
-- but also so that their voices are also nurtured
to take on the level of professional and personal
responsibilities that an elite institution
(In its highest octave) promises and can offer --
in it's second class of women -- So not only
was I navigating the intense social and academic pressures of an elite college,losing self-esteem daily
and not completely understanding why and feeling
too proud (at 17)to talk to anyone about it -- but I
found myself in a place itself going through a rough transition from well over a century of all-male education into one that was trying -- but not
always succeeding --in welcoming those first groups
of women they admitted -- It's really heartening to
hear about this First Gen Organization
since I think it is filling a very strong need -- and would have helped me and others whose voices
were and are sorely needed to be heard not only in these elite academic institutions that accept them
-- but also so that their voices are also nurtured
to take on the level of professional and personal
responsibilities that an elite institution
(In its highest octave) promises and can offer --
3
Do people really get wrinkles from worrying? I know that get wrinkles from smoking, which is often inspired by worry. That part seems melodramatic.
I do not think elute schools have made it their business to use higher education to create a more equitable distribution of wealth. I think elite schools just want the best students regardless of economic background. I do not think schools perceive themselves as instruments of change in the way many commentators imply. If social change is a by product, mazel tov. They are trying to educate the brightest minds. This would, in ideal, create a hierarchy based on IQ and not wealth. For many Ivy people, the goal is in life is not to be rich but to send their kids to an Ivy and to perpetuate the Ivy line. Social change would be a epiphenomenon or (positive) byproduct. Not an objective.
It begs the question: What is education for? If you're studying Philosophy at Princeton or Yale, it's probably for its own sake.
I do not think elute schools have made it their business to use higher education to create a more equitable distribution of wealth. I think elite schools just want the best students regardless of economic background. I do not think schools perceive themselves as instruments of change in the way many commentators imply. If social change is a by product, mazel tov. They are trying to educate the brightest minds. This would, in ideal, create a hierarchy based on IQ and not wealth. For many Ivy people, the goal is in life is not to be rich but to send their kids to an Ivy and to perpetuate the Ivy line. Social change would be a epiphenomenon or (positive) byproduct. Not an objective.
It begs the question: What is education for? If you're studying Philosophy at Princeton or Yale, it's probably for its own sake.
3
I briefly worked as a secretary in the Harvard Govt Dept. I had 2 favorite students: one, an undergraduate whose parents worked on an auto assembly line and cleaned hotel rooms and two, a graduate student who served in the Israeli Army and cleaned toilets.
These students were much more mature and humble than the self-centered more affluent students surrounding them. Hats off and good luck to you first generation students!
My only complaint about such articles is that Harvard and or Ivy League schools always have to be featured. We serfs attend other private or public schools and do well too.
These students were much more mature and humble than the self-centered more affluent students surrounding them. Hats off and good luck to you first generation students!
My only complaint about such articles is that Harvard and or Ivy League schools always have to be featured. We serfs attend other private or public schools and do well too.
6
I also was the first in my family to go to college. I doubt if either parents or aunts and uncles completed grade school, much less attended college. Certainly my grandparents had grade school educations. Despite that, my grandfather read the NYT from cover to cover daily and drew the most intricate, beautiful architectural designs - all self-taught. I was a "bookworm" and if any teacher so much as mentioned a topic or an historical individual (a mention of Feud when in the fifth grade sparked a lifelong interest in psychology), I would go to the library and take out books on the subject. Any time I moved (before the internet) one of the first things I did was get a (free) library card.
One thing I was taught was, I was not a victim. I was also taught morality, ethics, hard work, not to expect something for nothing, and prudence with money. I consider the poverty of my youth character building. It took many tries (I attended 5-6 community colleges, on-line college for my undergraduate, and was assisted by my employer with time and money to earn my masters degree), a span of about 20 years with 12 years attending school summer, fall, spring, and winter part-time, working full-time to earn three degrees. I was on the "pay as you go" plan. I paid out of pocket for everything.
Yet I look at my college-educated niece, her college educated (law degree) husband and know that her two children will go to college as a given.
Passing it on, that's what it is all about.
One thing I was taught was, I was not a victim. I was also taught morality, ethics, hard work, not to expect something for nothing, and prudence with money. I consider the poverty of my youth character building. It took many tries (I attended 5-6 community colleges, on-line college for my undergraduate, and was assisted by my employer with time and money to earn my masters degree), a span of about 20 years with 12 years attending school summer, fall, spring, and winter part-time, working full-time to earn three degrees. I was on the "pay as you go" plan. I paid out of pocket for everything.
Yet I look at my college-educated niece, her college educated (law degree) husband and know that her two children will go to college as a given.
Passing it on, that's what it is all about.
3
If the Ivy League wants some help figuring out how to support first generation college students and student who lack resources, perhaps they should look to community colleges. At the community college I teach at, we have had an established first generation program for over a decade. In addition, since we know a large percentage of our students lack resources due to their modest backgrounds, we also have a Student Life center with a lending library (most of my students can't afford books) and food bank among the many services provided. I think it's important for first generation students and students who lack resources across all higher education institutions have access to support and services, but I'm a little annoyed that NYT seems to be patting the Ivies on the back for finally figuring out what community colleges have known all along.
7
I owe everything I have to my community college. Thank you for your work!
1
I was a 1st gen as well. My father had to drop out of high school to keep the family fed and by the time my mother finished 8th grade, the war in Europe was reordering priorities for her and her siblings. Of course, at my time being a 1st gen did not mean the same as today, where the biggest obstacles I perceive from this article is the constant comparison with wealthier students, apparently resulting in a severe inferiority complex. Suffice it to say that I most likely grew up under objectively far more appalling conditions than most, though surely not all, of those 1st gen students described in this article.
So the solution to that inferiority problem is to rationally process it and then throw that trash out of one's head. There is no reason to feel inferior, on the contrary. 1st gen students should feel empowered by what they have achieved already. With that head start in abilities and life experience, the path through an Ivy should be a cruise on which they can pick up exponentially more steam along the way.
That's where former 1gen graduates can help with a kind of a big brother/sister program. As I wrote above, this is mostly about throwing out the mental trash that clutters one's head, not any real disadvantage.
I would be happy to serve in that capacity.
So the solution to that inferiority problem is to rationally process it and then throw that trash out of one's head. There is no reason to feel inferior, on the contrary. 1st gen students should feel empowered by what they have achieved already. With that head start in abilities and life experience, the path through an Ivy should be a cruise on which they can pick up exponentially more steam along the way.
That's where former 1gen graduates can help with a kind of a big brother/sister program. As I wrote above, this is mostly about throwing out the mental trash that clutters one's head, not any real disadvantage.
I would be happy to serve in that capacity.
5
Somehow I became a first generation student against the wishes of my family. They expressed a lot of anti-intellectualism and their expectations were that I would accept their values. Registering for college did not feel like a rebellious act, however after graduating many years ago, I can now understand their view. Even now there seems to be resentment that my life is very different. My degree and personal values have given me a middle class modest lifestyle. However, this was not my goal. I simply had a burning desire and curiousity to learn. College was the beginning of many years of self education.
11
This story is utterly ridiculous. It looks at a select group -- dare I say, elite group -- of teenagers who were recruited because they had the good fortune to be both poor and smart. They were placed in an unnatural unsupportive environment where they were being used by their schools to demonstrate diversity and inclusiveness. If the author really wanted to write about first-generation college students, she should have looked at 2nd and 3rd tier public universities and colleges. In fact, there is a huge group right there in New York City, called City University of New York, which has catered to first-gen students for generations. I myself am such, having been the child of immigrants who attended City College of New York and graduated with honors. There are hundreds of such schools all over the country, where first-generation students can get a solid education at a reasonable price without having to compete with all the Muffies, Buffies, at Chatsworths in their $1000 ski jackets.
10
The thing is- being first-generation is much more commonplace at CUNYs and SUNYs and thus is not something that hasn't been studied. If you think about it, the socioeconomical struggles of poor kids in public high schools doesn't change much when they go to public colleges. I went to Bayside High School (in Queens, NY) and am now in my third year at Cornell and I can definitely identify with many of the things the author speaks of.
Everything you say may be true, but why does that make this story ridiculous?
I have also lived Mr. Jack's research. I'm a first generation college graduate, the first in my family to graduate high school. Both my parents attended school in rural Guatemala, but because of their extreme poverty could not even complete middle school. I managed to get into Amherst (a few years ahead of Mr. Jack, actually). And I understand completely what being "privileged poor" means.
My parents, through complete serendipity, decided to settle in a wealthy Washington suburb. That one decision completely changed the course of my life since I had access to one of the best public school systems in the country. I excelled academically and as a result I got placed in magnet programs in both middle and high schools. It was in those programs that I acclimated myself to the rigors of educationally-enriched environments (and where I was granted great opportunities, like interning at the NIH my senior year of high school), and it was there that I learned about schools like Amherst. These programs also taught me the "hidden" social rules of interacting with upper-middle class people and authority figures. My transition into a place like Amherst was pretty easy as a result.
But I witnessed the terrible struggles of first-generation kids like myself who not had the opportunities I had early on attending school in a wealthy public school district. Amherst to them came as a rude shock. I guess I was lucky enough to have won the geographical lottery, which is terribly unfair.
My parents, through complete serendipity, decided to settle in a wealthy Washington suburb. That one decision completely changed the course of my life since I had access to one of the best public school systems in the country. I excelled academically and as a result I got placed in magnet programs in both middle and high schools. It was in those programs that I acclimated myself to the rigors of educationally-enriched environments (and where I was granted great opportunities, like interning at the NIH my senior year of high school), and it was there that I learned about schools like Amherst. These programs also taught me the "hidden" social rules of interacting with upper-middle class people and authority figures. My transition into a place like Amherst was pretty easy as a result.
But I witnessed the terrible struggles of first-generation kids like myself who not had the opportunities I had early on attending school in a wealthy public school district. Amherst to them came as a rude shock. I guess I was lucky enough to have won the geographical lottery, which is terribly unfair.
17
First generation does not equate with poverty, It did not in my day when I graduated from Smith College as a first generation student in 1967. My father by the time I entered Smith was self-educated and a self-made man, a successful entrepreneur. Our home was filled with books and he paid my tuition.
I think in the US there is still the opportunity for families like mine to succeed intellectually and economically with out college. Socially I experienced a gap at college which I think was more tied to being Jewish than first-generation. All parents want their children to exceed their own dreams. The US is still the best country in the world for fulfillment of this dream.
I think in the US there is still the opportunity for families like mine to succeed intellectually and economically with out college. Socially I experienced a gap at college which I think was more tied to being Jewish than first-generation. All parents want their children to exceed their own dreams. The US is still the best country in the world for fulfillment of this dream.
6
The NY Times focuses the majority of its story on first-generation students on those in elite colleges and universities, while the real story is the gutting of the public institutions where the vast majority of these students go, when they can afford college at all.
I empathize with those first-generation students who struggle once they get to Harvard or Yale or Pomona College, but their plight pales in comparison to the large number of first-generation students who attend schools like mine, one of the California State University campuses, which has seen funding cut to the point where our system turns away tens of thousands of qualified applicants each year, and it takes five or six years to graduate, simply because there is not enough money to admit all the qualified students who apply or offer enough classes to meet demand. Our society and our state legislatures have lost sight of the value of higher education in favor of corporate special interests and the incarceration of our (mostly black) youth (we spend more on prisons than higher education in our state, a fact even Arnold Schwarzenegger decried as he left office).
I wish the NY Times would stop using its education coverage to focus on what is happening at the elite institutions in this country, as if they are representative of higher education, and start focusing on the real story of underfunding of public universities, where the majority of college students go.
I empathize with those first-generation students who struggle once they get to Harvard or Yale or Pomona College, but their plight pales in comparison to the large number of first-generation students who attend schools like mine, one of the California State University campuses, which has seen funding cut to the point where our system turns away tens of thousands of qualified applicants each year, and it takes five or six years to graduate, simply because there is not enough money to admit all the qualified students who apply or offer enough classes to meet demand. Our society and our state legislatures have lost sight of the value of higher education in favor of corporate special interests and the incarceration of our (mostly black) youth (we spend more on prisons than higher education in our state, a fact even Arnold Schwarzenegger decried as he left office).
I wish the NY Times would stop using its education coverage to focus on what is happening at the elite institutions in this country, as if they are representative of higher education, and start focusing on the real story of underfunding of public universities, where the majority of college students go.
47
Good for the Ivies.
I do wish the Times would occasionally pay more attention to both the CUNY and SUNY systems. The City University campuses have been doing the job of educating first-timers, the sons and daughters of working people and immigrants, for generations. The so-called elite and first tier colleges and universities are still a closed system, reserved for the privileged, and the very small number of students from the backgrounds cited here have won a kind of lottery. Good for them, but Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard et al have little reason for self-congratulation.
David WInn
Assistant Professor
English
Hunter College, CUNY
I do wish the Times would occasionally pay more attention to both the CUNY and SUNY systems. The City University campuses have been doing the job of educating first-timers, the sons and daughters of working people and immigrants, for generations. The so-called elite and first tier colleges and universities are still a closed system, reserved for the privileged, and the very small number of students from the backgrounds cited here have won a kind of lottery. Good for them, but Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard et al have little reason for self-congratulation.
David WInn
Assistant Professor
English
Hunter College, CUNY
21
I was the first in my family to graduate from college. The first-gen students here echo many of the things I experienced at an elite liberal arts school. The opportunity to attend these schools is huge, and we worked hard to find a way up and out of our circumstances. My mom came to see me twice - once to watch me play soccer and once when I graduated. I flew to campus alone and caught a train then a cab to school. I also sent money home to help with bills. Other commenters mentioned that it must be SO hard to have a full ride, but they miss the point. I lived on just my student job income, which was about $150/month. My summer job paid for summer housing on campus and food, as well as books each semester. I also had an contribution responsibility of several hundred dollars each year as part of my financial aid package. When I told my teammates and coaches I couldn't attend team dinners out or a big team trip to Germany, they didn't understand, with one coach saying it must be annoying for my teammates that I always use money as an excuse. I also met wonderful people that helped me tremendously along the way. Students like me get the wonderful experience of going to college - but the major challenges that come with the opportunity cannot be ignored for both the good and the bad. We leave school with not only the education and campus experience, but also the self-reliance and extra work ethic that many other students never needed to develop. - Vassar 11
10
That coach who tried to shame you for not being able to afford a team trip to Germany was a grade-A jerk! He/she deserves to be called out and censured for those callous ignorant remarks. How about team fundraising to help ensure that those team members not from wealthy families can still participate?
Someone at Vassar needs to find that coach if he/she/it is still there and either help them with a reality check or "out-counsel" them.
1
This article was a great read, but a typical NYT take on college culture and class assumptions (of course it focused on the Ivies, with just the right blend of ethnicities). That's fine.
My experience (I had the GI Bill + $ kicked in from parents so I actually had pretty good $ in college) at The University of Texas at Austin, a tier one state school, dealt with the 10% rule, which automatically admitted all top 10% HS students.
It was readily apparent that many from smaller, rural schools, were woefully unprepared to jump in to heavy STEM, business, and engineering majors. While those who went to the best private & city schools (Highland Park, Westlake, Woodlands) were math ready and able to navigate culturally the assumed expenses of college life. It mirrors the article, and looks this way at Michigan, Virginia, UNC, and comparable state school experience across America.
Great morning read.
My experience (I had the GI Bill + $ kicked in from parents so I actually had pretty good $ in college) at The University of Texas at Austin, a tier one state school, dealt with the 10% rule, which automatically admitted all top 10% HS students.
It was readily apparent that many from smaller, rural schools, were woefully unprepared to jump in to heavy STEM, business, and engineering majors. While those who went to the best private & city schools (Highland Park, Westlake, Woodlands) were math ready and able to navigate culturally the assumed expenses of college life. It mirrors the article, and looks this way at Michigan, Virginia, UNC, and comparable state school experience across America.
Great morning read.
5
I admire kids who struggle to achieve something new for themselves and their families. But I worry that professors who "teach" them to care too much about class differences are doing them a disservice. They came to get an education, not a lesson in social injustice. If they want to change the culture of their college or university, or their communities, they need to work at it, and make real improvements in the economic conditions where they live. No one else will change it for them. But they shouldn't assume that other students who have more money than they do are somehow getting a better education -- the facts don't bear that empty surmise out.
4
I would argue that a lesson in social injustice is an imperative part of receiving an education.
1
I went to an upscale college on grants in the 1980s as I was a young widow with two children on welfare. The school was insanely expensive (it is $50K a year now) and the last year I had to take out student loans to pay the tuition, all of which I paid back.
Most of the students in my classes came from rich families. They had money and no responsibilities and yet 50% of them dropped out by the end of the first year, unprepared for the massive quantities of school work that took every moment of free time.
I did not. I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that would lead me to a solid career and pull my family out of poverty. It did that and more.
I made close friends (one poor, the other two rich), but that was because I did not see myself as 'under-privileged'. If there were snobs in the class, and I am sure there were, I stayed away from them. Some people are born rich. So what? That has nothing to do with me.
I say this not as a 'I walked five miles to school in the snow' parable, but that if you are poor, you do not have the luxury of seeing yourself as a victim, as once you do, it will become your identity for life and the self-pity will deplete your energy and drive at a time when you need it most.
Instead, I saw myself as 'lucky', just as are these students, whether they know it or not. Grab the once in a lifetime opportunity given to you with both hands and do not let anything stop you.
That, more than anything else, will determine your path in life.
Most of the students in my classes came from rich families. They had money and no responsibilities and yet 50% of them dropped out by the end of the first year, unprepared for the massive quantities of school work that took every moment of free time.
I did not. I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that would lead me to a solid career and pull my family out of poverty. It did that and more.
I made close friends (one poor, the other two rich), but that was because I did not see myself as 'under-privileged'. If there were snobs in the class, and I am sure there were, I stayed away from them. Some people are born rich. So what? That has nothing to do with me.
I say this not as a 'I walked five miles to school in the snow' parable, but that if you are poor, you do not have the luxury of seeing yourself as a victim, as once you do, it will become your identity for life and the self-pity will deplete your energy and drive at a time when you need it most.
Instead, I saw myself as 'lucky', just as are these students, whether they know it or not. Grab the once in a lifetime opportunity given to you with both hands and do not let anything stop you.
That, more than anything else, will determine your path in life.
47
That's a great way to to put it!
Acknowledging that a bit of social support is useful in college is hardly the same as "seeing yourself as a victim". Personally, I think that kind of attitude is utterly ridiculous.
Deriving support from this kind of program is not "self-pitying" and it's not making victimhood your "identity".
Yes, these programs make life a *little* bit easier for people who've already experienced significant difficulties and setbacks-- what on earth is wrong with that? Why should we insist that their lives be as hard as possible?
Sure, you were lucky, but maybe you could have actually benefited from this type of support as well.
Deriving support from this kind of program is not "self-pitying" and it's not making victimhood your "identity".
Yes, these programs make life a *little* bit easier for people who've already experienced significant difficulties and setbacks-- what on earth is wrong with that? Why should we insist that their lives be as hard as possible?
Sure, you were lucky, but maybe you could have actually benefited from this type of support as well.
What a hard time these will have ahead if they keep comparing themselves to everyone else and expecting life to be fair. Forty years ago, I made it through college on loans and grants (there were such things then). I went to school with kids whose parents could just write a tuition check each semester, while I had to fill out forms and keep my fingers crossed. They summered in Nantucket and I waitressed back home. It was a fact of life that made no difference whatsoever to me. In the years since, I have crossed paths many, many times with people with more money than me. It still makes no difference to me. It doesn't make me feel less and it doesn't make me jealous. It is still a fact of life. There will always be those who have more, get more, achieve more. I have had a great life, and have been middle-class the entire time. So what? Being less well-off than some has made no difference. And, unless the kids in this article want to be unsatisfied and unhappy all their lives, they would do well to realize that.
18
I was a first-generation college student in California during the wild late '60s-early '70s. One of the benefits of that period was that looking 'hip' didn't always mean wearing expensive "rich hippie" outfits. So old jeans and worn tee-shirts were fine. Driving an old car was 'cool,' and needing to pool money for getting food was pretty common. Flashing a lot of cash was not the done thing. That didn't lessen the feeling of being an 'alien' when everyone else talked about spring break vacations and cushy summer internships arranged by their fathers. Then I went to grad school in a large midwestern city, and saw the world of fraternities, sororities and conspicuous consumption. I remember one undergrad who wore a mink coat to her classes. Being poor and struggling wasn't cool, it was just depressing. Luckily graduate student culture was still all about being poor, so there was a clan of like-living folks around. But perhaps the worst moment was during a class on poverty and lifestyle, where the lecturer blithely mouthed commonplaces about poor judgement and lack of strong moral values as one of the reasons poor families stayed poor. Meanwhile, one of the undergrads - a young black woman on scholarship and heavily pregnant - sat in a back row and wept.
12
But 'poor judgment' is one of the reasons many poor families stay poor.
That was even more true then, when a family could actually live on minimum wage, than it is now.
That was even more true then, when a family could actually live on minimum wage, than it is now.
1
"Ms. Barros was embarrassed during a history discussion about inequality in which the teaching fellow gave students a list of 20 items, from trust funds to college savings plans, and told them to award themselves a point for each."
How could this happen at school's that are supposedly trying to level the playing field?
Regardless of the academic brilliance of a young person, they are still young kids dealing with insecurities and the peer pressure of trying to "belong." Not having the right clothes, books, money for a few extras like pizza or burgers is a big deal when you are young. In the mid-60's I graduated at the top of my high school class and had high SAT scores. I had my heart set on an elite women's college. I read everything I could find about the school, its history, its graduates, the opportunities afforded by attending -- and slowly the reality hit me -- I'd never be able to "fit in" because the majority of the students came from private schools and privileged backgrounds whose parents were movers and shakers nationally and internationally. I went with reality and opted for the state university which offered affordable tuition and the ability to fit in with my classmates. Ultimately I'm glad I made that choice because I got a fine education and enjoyed a successful career because of it.
I hope the young people in this article can make their peace and either stick with the elite school or transfer to university in which they'll feel less social pressure.
How could this happen at school's that are supposedly trying to level the playing field?
Regardless of the academic brilliance of a young person, they are still young kids dealing with insecurities and the peer pressure of trying to "belong." Not having the right clothes, books, money for a few extras like pizza or burgers is a big deal when you are young. In the mid-60's I graduated at the top of my high school class and had high SAT scores. I had my heart set on an elite women's college. I read everything I could find about the school, its history, its graduates, the opportunities afforded by attending -- and slowly the reality hit me -- I'd never be able to "fit in" because the majority of the students came from private schools and privileged backgrounds whose parents were movers and shakers nationally and internationally. I went with reality and opted for the state university which offered affordable tuition and the ability to fit in with my classmates. Ultimately I'm glad I made that choice because I got a fine education and enjoyed a successful career because of it.
I hope the young people in this article can make their peace and either stick with the elite school or transfer to university in which they'll feel less social pressure.
4
Most of these students use "upspeak". Responses in the form of a question is a definite sign of insecurity.
3
I noticed that, too. But in this case, I don't think it's a sign of insecurity. I think it's actually an attempt to talk like the affluent white students on their campuses talk.
Language changes subtly in every generation. The "upspeak" phenomenon may be annoying to you personally, but it's not really that new and it has nothing to do with insecurity.
As a former linguistics student (and scholarship kid), I can also tell you that the phenomenon is not confined to the US or to people in their 20s-- you can find the same thing in various parts of English-speaking world (e.g., among working-class men in Glasgow).
As a former linguistics student (and scholarship kid), I can also tell you that the phenomenon is not confined to the US or to people in their 20s-- you can find the same thing in various parts of English-speaking world (e.g., among working-class men in Glasgow).
I was a first generation college student as well, 28 years ago. My parents weren't high earners, but they owned an apartment and had some assets so I wasn't eligible for a lot of financial aid and I wasn't eligible for the HEOP programs that many of my friends were a part of. My experience was very different. I was in the middle as far as the school was concerned, and I fell through the cracks. Not enough money to be counted as "regular" pay your entire way student, but not poor enough to be considered part of the HEOP crowd that had built in support systems to help when someone was failing, or needed extra assistance. I was in a huge university, trying to understand how to navigate things without anyone. It was scary and lonely. And I did foolish things not understanding the consequences. So I love the idea of this group, it is so needed. I'm a little sad that almost 30 years later that it's still needed, but I think it's a great example of what colleges and universities do best...innovate and create spaces where there were none before. If I had had this group when I was at the University of Rochester in 1987, I would have my Ph.D by now. It took me a long time to get my degree and now I'm saddled with a lot of debt as well. This is a group that needs to make sure there is a chapter available for as many 1st time college students in the country as possible. I hope Duke, the UNC system and Wake Forest are paying attention.
6
I'm a Rochester native, and unfortunately I don't think things have changed very much at the University here over the years. U of R students still have the reputation of being very privileged and clique-y.
There's a program now that allows Rochester city high school grads (most of whom are low income and minority) free tuition at U of R. However, I don't think there are that many people taking advantage of it-- possibly because they feel so out of place in the university culture.
I agree that the programs described in the article are great, and I wish they were more widely available.
There's a program now that allows Rochester city high school grads (most of whom are low income and minority) free tuition at U of R. However, I don't think there are that many people taking advantage of it-- possibly because they feel so out of place in the university culture.
I agree that the programs described in the article are great, and I wish they were more widely available.
This is the most depressing article I've read in a long time. Why do we no longer school our children of privilege that not everyone has had their advantages?
I was prep school faculty child and a 4th generation college attendee but I was reminded every September from the time I was 10 that I came from privilege and should be sensitive of how I spoke about it, as not everyone had.
I was prep school faculty child and a 4th generation college attendee but I was reminded every September from the time I was 10 that I came from privilege and should be sensitive of how I spoke about it, as not everyone had.
6
Many high income people from humble backgrounds instill a sense of responsibility in their children. It is one of the most important things we can do as parents -- to remind them of their roots.
My one roomate, who still talks about knowing everything there is to know about meat becasuse his grandfather was a butcher, became the CFO of a major organization. His son spent two years with Teach for America.
While not as financially sucessful as my roommate, I've done pretty well. My daughter joined the Peace Corps and will start her full-time job next year as a middle-school Social Studies teacher in an inner city. My son was a volunteer fire fighter and volunteered for his college EMT squad.
The children of well to do parents don't all grow up to be Paris Hilton.
My one roomate, who still talks about knowing everything there is to know about meat becasuse his grandfather was a butcher, became the CFO of a major organization. His son spent two years with Teach for America.
While not as financially sucessful as my roommate, I've done pretty well. My daughter joined the Peace Corps and will start her full-time job next year as a middle-school Social Studies teacher in an inner city. My son was a volunteer fire fighter and volunteered for his college EMT squad.
The children of well to do parents don't all grow up to be Paris Hilton.
2
'...“It was very uncomfortable"...'
And being 'uncomfortable' is something no young person should ever experience?
'...In his first art history class, the professor had gone around class asking each student to name a favorite Renaissance painter. He hadn’t had any...
Why would any student who wanted to major in Art History not have gone to the library or looked on the internet at painters?
'...The paucity of low-income students at selective colleges has long been problematic... ‘When do social hurdles get in the way?’”...'
When the student allows them to get in the way.
'...He wears, almost always, a gold chain with a large ruby-embellished horseshoe as a reminder, he says, of his father, who bought the bling instead of family essentials...'
Hopefully, as a symbol of what *not* to do in life.
And being 'uncomfortable' is something no young person should ever experience?
'...In his first art history class, the professor had gone around class asking each student to name a favorite Renaissance painter. He hadn’t had any...
Why would any student who wanted to major in Art History not have gone to the library or looked on the internet at painters?
'...The paucity of low-income students at selective colleges has long been problematic... ‘When do social hurdles get in the way?’”...'
When the student allows them to get in the way.
'...He wears, almost always, a gold chain with a large ruby-embellished horseshoe as a reminder, he says, of his father, who bought the bling instead of family essentials...'
Hopefully, as a symbol of what *not* to do in life.
9
It goes way beyond being "uncomfortable"-- there are plenty of studies showing that low-income students who don't get this kind of support are at much higher risk of dropping out than other students. (Not necessarily because they can't do the academic work, but because of other social/ cultural factors). That's a great waste of potential.
I really don't understand why some people here are so opposed to these programs-- it seems like a little common sense and empathy should explain why they're useful and beneficial.
I really don't understand why some people here are so opposed to these programs-- it seems like a little common sense and empathy should explain why they're useful and beneficial.
These issues don’t end upon graduation, but continue on in the workplace, especially in the elite companies that these graduates are recruited to work for. The pressure to “pass” as a class other than one’s own can be enormous. But these students should know that as uneasy as their journey may be, they are trailblazers, their children will have a better time of it and they themselves are bringing great benefit to the cultures of origin. Their experiences are so much broader than their peers, which will make them more insightful and empathetic, perhaps having a greater impact on society, as they move forward.
6
I was a 1st gen in my family. Going to school was an eye opener to be surrounded by the range of wealth and backgrounds. It took some adjusting but I was never once ashamed or embarrassed of how I got there and how my parents worked to pay for my education and lifestyle at school. I used this as a motivator to do well in school and observed how the privileged conducted themselves in social settings as part of my overall education and experience from school. I hope these student groups help other 1st Gen to embrace their diverse background and use it as a motivation.
14
Seems these first time students have much to learn about 'inequality', especially that it is a fact of life in a capitalistic system. How they arrived on a college campus without having that realization, tells us they are really not prepared for college, let alone life. When you cannot fully experience in your K-12 grade education that inequality is part of life, and 'life is not fair', you have not been 'educated'.
5
But that is precisely why they're in college to be educated. The life of many children in poverty is remarkably circumscribed. The broadening of experience that occurs in college has been shown in research to have a wonderfully positive effect on these kids.
1
Coolhunter - I think you should consider that all, not solely first time students, have much to learn about "inequality" in a capitalistic system. The burden of this knowledge should not fall solely on the first-gen students. Why are the privileged students, perhaps not first-gen, exempted from this "education"?
2
I assume you also think it's important for children of privilege to learn before they arrive at college that not everyone is like them.
4
Not sure what to make of this story, comparing it with my own experience several decades ago as a first generation college student (indeed first generation high school grad) at Princeton made possible by generous financial aid.
Some parts seem similar. I was the poorest person I knew on campus - my mom was a widow and an office clerk. We always had the basics, but not much more. Nor did my family know anything about college or have the ability to give me any advice. I could never take spring break vacations, and I worked on campus to pay for my books.
However, other parts don't match. I did not feel isolated. I had great friends right from the start - all from more affluent backgrounds but that really made no difference. In classes, I never felt my background made any difference, and it was just never an issue. I did well right from the start and graduated near the top on my class. I was just so excited to be in a place where I was learning so much.
So how to explain the difference in my experience from that of the students in the article? Two different sorts of factors seems likely.
1. Our current society is more economically unequal, more focused on wealth and consumption, so that the real wealth differences on campus are greater and more apparent.
2. We have institutionalized the notion of being a first generation student and created a narrative about being one that actually shapes the perceptions of such students.
Probably some of both at work.
I
Some parts seem similar. I was the poorest person I knew on campus - my mom was a widow and an office clerk. We always had the basics, but not much more. Nor did my family know anything about college or have the ability to give me any advice. I could never take spring break vacations, and I worked on campus to pay for my books.
However, other parts don't match. I did not feel isolated. I had great friends right from the start - all from more affluent backgrounds but that really made no difference. In classes, I never felt my background made any difference, and it was just never an issue. I did well right from the start and graduated near the top on my class. I was just so excited to be in a place where I was learning so much.
So how to explain the difference in my experience from that of the students in the article? Two different sorts of factors seems likely.
1. Our current society is more economically unequal, more focused on wealth and consumption, so that the real wealth differences on campus are greater and more apparent.
2. We have institutionalized the notion of being a first generation student and created a narrative about being one that actually shapes the perceptions of such students.
Probably some of both at work.
I
16
Not (2), I think. Rather, I think that much of it has to do with the fact that these students are frequently minority students who grew up in the ghetto. There is a much greater cultural and experiential gap between such a student and the wealthier students at these schools than there was in your case.
1
'...I was the poorest person I knew on campus - my mom was a widow...'
I was the one who was a widow with two children when I went to an expensive college in the 1980s, so everyone, even the few other students who came from blue collar families and lived on student loans, was richer than me.
But few were more determined than me. After all, when you live in poverty, there is nothing to go back to but more of the same. What more incentive to work and study hard? (Brag: I made the Dean's list.)
These students should stop seeing themselves as helpless victims and start seeing themselves as astoundingly lucky to be given this incredible opportunity.
Grab that golden ring and let nothing stop you and do not major in any field that does not have four columns of Want Ads in the employment section of the New York Times. You do not have the luxury of being an Arts major.
I was the one who was a widow with two children when I went to an expensive college in the 1980s, so everyone, even the few other students who came from blue collar families and lived on student loans, was richer than me.
But few were more determined than me. After all, when you live in poverty, there is nothing to go back to but more of the same. What more incentive to work and study hard? (Brag: I made the Dean's list.)
These students should stop seeing themselves as helpless victims and start seeing themselves as astoundingly lucky to be given this incredible opportunity.
Grab that golden ring and let nothing stop you and do not major in any field that does not have four columns of Want Ads in the employment section of the New York Times. You do not have the luxury of being an Arts major.
1
I certainly agree with your #1. Class differences have become more pronounced and rigid.
2
Good Job, Ms. Barros and all "first-generation" students! The article says, "Many others, including some federal reports, identify first-generation students as those whose parents have no college experience." Some college experience doesn't count. I was the first in my large, extended family to attend college and when I arrived at a small state college I realized how inadequate my 12-grade education was even though I was an excellent student. It is very difficult to relate to people around you who are so much more "worldly" and with better life and social skills when you're young. Many, including me, dropped out and went to work. In fact, I became very successful in business because I had a well-rounded background and could relate to all kinds of people. Please, first generation students, stay in the elite and not-so-elite schools, get a first-rate education and get out in the world to help restore economic fairness and democracy in America.
20
'... I realized how inadequate my 12-grade education was even though I was an excellent student...'
The fact that our schools send out students unprepared and those students mistakenly think they were 'excellent' is a huge part of the problem.
They were coasting and being rewarded for simply showing up.
The fact that our schools send out students unprepared and those students mistakenly think they were 'excellent' is a huge part of the problem.
They were coasting and being rewarded for simply showing up.
3
Not necessarily true. My own experience: I was a so-called "college bound" student along with my best friend. I had a very high reading score, apparently not something expected where I attended school. It enabled me to read and understand presented materials. However, I was an underachiever. School bored me. Mostly, I read books hidden in textbooks in the back of the classroom. I was given the grades I had earned despite my so-called status as college-bound. My friend, who grew up in extreme poverty; however, was taught (unlike my family) by her single mother to study, study, study. She holds a doctoral degree today and all of her seven siblings have advance college degrees and are successful.
But here's my point. At one time, the school district decided we would "benefit" from attending an all-white school in a more affluent area. What an eye-opener as to the difference we intelligent students were being taught in our school and the high quality of what those students were being taught. We were once given a test to enter Hunter, half the material on the test we had never even been taught.
There is inequality in education in this country and it is not entirely the fault of poor students in poor areas. I myself preferred to seek out my education and have been a self-motivated lifelong learner. BTW, I maintained a 3.8-4.0 GPA throughout my college life when I chose to go to college - and I earned it.
But here's my point. At one time, the school district decided we would "benefit" from attending an all-white school in a more affluent area. What an eye-opener as to the difference we intelligent students were being taught in our school and the high quality of what those students were being taught. We were once given a test to enter Hunter, half the material on the test we had never even been taught.
There is inequality in education in this country and it is not entirely the fault of poor students in poor areas. I myself preferred to seek out my education and have been a self-motivated lifelong learner. BTW, I maintained a 3.8-4.0 GPA throughout my college life when I chose to go to college - and I earned it.
2
But I think the point about differentiating between students whose parents had no college experience and those who did is valid. Both of my parents went to college, but neither of them graduated. By some measures, then, I was a first-generation college student. But growing up with two parents who had attended college, and who held jobs normally held by those with college degrees, meant that I also grew up with the expectation that I would attend college as well (and presumably graduate). That's a world of difference from a kid whose parents never had the opportunity to attend college, and who hold jobs as janitors or the like.
2
One thing that this article doesn't point out is that a study found that while kids from privileged backgrounds who attended elite schools did no better than kids who didn't, while disadvantaged kids who attended elite schools profited from the experience. And that's important to know: there is much opportunity here for social good if we can get more talented first-generation students to apply to schools appropriate to their ability.
Otherwise, I agree that there is a bit too much touchy-feeliness here -- after all, generations of Americans have "made it" by being the first in their families to attend college, and discrepancies in wealth, class, and privilege, and alienation from one's parents and the people with whom one grew up, have always been part of that experience. But that doesn't mean there aren't issues worthy of attention. It is important for schools to make provisions for those who struggle economically. And, as the article points out, studies have found that appropriate support improves the success rate of students from disadvantaged backgrounds; these programs should be universal.
Finally, I'd point out that the figure on percentage of students whose parents aren't college graduates is meaningless without reference to the fact that the percentage of parents who are has increased dramatically. Surely, someone who has attended college knows that a more sophisticated statistical analysis is required?
Otherwise, I agree that there is a bit too much touchy-feeliness here -- after all, generations of Americans have "made it" by being the first in their families to attend college, and discrepancies in wealth, class, and privilege, and alienation from one's parents and the people with whom one grew up, have always been part of that experience. But that doesn't mean there aren't issues worthy of attention. It is important for schools to make provisions for those who struggle economically. And, as the article points out, studies have found that appropriate support improves the success rate of students from disadvantaged backgrounds; these programs should be universal.
Finally, I'd point out that the figure on percentage of students whose parents aren't college graduates is meaningless without reference to the fact that the percentage of parents who are has increased dramatically. Surely, someone who has attended college knows that a more sophisticated statistical analysis is required?
16
'...It is important for schools to make provisions for those who struggle economically...'
Economic provisions, for certain, but the fact that many of these students come unprepared (if you want to study Art History, why did you not look on the internet or go to a library) and that they see being 'uncomfortable' as an big issue does not bode well for them.
Students: Best not get too comfortable wearing that victim mantle, when to most of the world, you are lucky.
Economic provisions, for certain, but the fact that many of these students come unprepared (if you want to study Art History, why did you not look on the internet or go to a library) and that they see being 'uncomfortable' as an big issue does not bode well for them.
Students: Best not get too comfortable wearing that victim mantle, when to most of the world, you are lucky.
There's no math in journalism school!
Whether 1st Gen, less affluent or disadvantaged for reason beyond their control, it's most important to help young people empower themselves by embracing their situations with confidence and shed the discomfort of feeling stigmatized so to assimilate and enhance a fairer society. Likewise for the advantaged and affluent young people to be confronted with situations on the other extreme end of their privileged life to understand and empathize with struggles of society they would otherwise not understand nor appreciate to use their position to balance the growing disparity in society today.
12
Wow - so a full-ride life at a first tier university is hard and stuff...
And you don't get issued a puffer coat when you show up.
And you don't get issued a puffer coat when you show up.
37
I think we have to be careful not be arrogant and dismissive of the challenges these kids face. Those of us who grew up with privilege can be pretty remarkably clueless about the difficulties faced by others. Yes, these kids are fortunate to have this opportunity and most will do very well in life. But if you talk to those who have had the experience, you'll find that it's often difficult, and, as the article points out, there's solid research that shows that a bit of support can allow them to succeed at the same rate as other students.
6
I had a good friend in high school with stellar grades -- National Merit scholarship, full ride, to a Midwestern 2nd tier Ivy school. Her family in the Midwest was really just middle class, not poor, but she was shocked at how the other non-scholarship students lived and dressed....and this was the early 70s, when things were a lot more egalitarian.
She had a classmate who had a Maserati sports car. Most of the kids routinely vacationed in Europe. Their families had second homes in vacation areas. They engaged in expensive sports like skiing, golf, etc. that require a lot of equipment and special memberships. Many belonged to country clubs.
In the 70s, though, at least the clothing was all the same -- jeans and hippie gear. In that brief time period, it was very hard to tell a rich kid from a poor kid on sight. But the signs were there, underneath the headbands and hippie beads. The rich kids had trust funds.
She had a classmate who had a Maserati sports car. Most of the kids routinely vacationed in Europe. Their families had second homes in vacation areas. They engaged in expensive sports like skiing, golf, etc. that require a lot of equipment and special memberships. Many belonged to country clubs.
In the 70s, though, at least the clothing was all the same -- jeans and hippie gear. In that brief time period, it was very hard to tell a rich kid from a poor kid on sight. But the signs were there, underneath the headbands and hippie beads. The rich kids had trust funds.
2
Nothing wrong with underprivileged kids getting together to help each other navigate the unfamiliar waters of life among the nation's wealthiest kids. I hope they shatter a few glass ceilings!
3
This article is fantastic. But we can't ignore the fact that this socio-economic gap isn't absent from public/ state schools as well. While it is more prevalent in Ivy League schools, a lot of those privileged students from high-income families go to these schools and for first-gen students that come into contact with them, the embarrassment is mutual. I was a first-gen student that didn't get very much financial support from my family after my sophomore year, and it was hard keeping up with a lot of friends that could afford to eat out multiple times a week and do fun activities that cost money. Studying was free, so I did it. But I didn't let that define my friendships. I paced myself and let them know when I couldn't afford to go out and they understood. If they care about your finances more than your companionship, they're not worth keeping up with. Since I've graduated, I'm more aware of how grateful I am to my parents for getting me to where I am. I have so much respect for them and I work really hard to make sure I can give back to them what they gave to me.
40
My husband was a teacher and I was a STAHM, so our income was barely middle class. My daughter went to an Ivy on a 4-yr ROTC scholarship. She did not have money to eat out instead of eating in the dining hall and this often meant she was not with her friend. But so what! In the end, many of these friends who were eating out, had done so on credit cards of their own and graduated from college not only with student loans to pay, but $8000 in credit card debt from beer and pizza.
Her more austere lifestyle did not in any way get in her way of great friendships and the respect of her fellow students. When she got married, many of these friends traveled long distances to celebrate with her. Her wedding? Not a huge blow-out the cost of a year at Harvard, but small and lovely. No one cared and they all had a great time.
One will always have friends who are more affluent and if one tries to keep up, will end up in debt beyond their wildest dreams. One learns to say no to what one can't afford. That is being an adult.
Her more austere lifestyle did not in any way get in her way of great friendships and the respect of her fellow students. When she got married, many of these friends traveled long distances to celebrate with her. Her wedding? Not a huge blow-out the cost of a year at Harvard, but small and lovely. No one cared and they all had a great time.
One will always have friends who are more affluent and if one tries to keep up, will end up in debt beyond their wildest dreams. One learns to say no to what one can't afford. That is being an adult.
2
Forty years ago, my husband and I were both first college students. His parents had not finished high school, but his eye had always been set on a college education. In high school, he had been part of an enrichment program for impoverished students that sent him to Princeton for several days. The experience was eye-opening. When he was accepted there for admission, he knew to turn it down. A few days on an Ivy League campus in the 1960’s was all it took to convince him that he could not fit in with students who were driven to school in limos and who ate dinner in eating clubs. We are both grateful that the obstacles that low-income students face are finally gaining attention. Feeling that you belong and learning to reach out for help are skills that are very hard to come by without modeling from your parents and encouragement from the community in which you grow up, whether you are at Princeton or a community college. My husband accepted a partial scholarship at another college, then put himself through medical school, and ultimately became the chair of an academic medical school department. Education is the key to social mobility, but as a society we need to do more to allow students to successfully navigate through it.
25
I am glad your husband was so successful on the path he chose, but as a low income first generation kid who attended Princeton in the 60s, I can say his beliefs that he would not have fit in there or been fully accepted were mistaken. Differences in family background made very little difference in everyday academic or social life back then - they were largely invisible.
5
'...he could not fit in with students who were driven to school in limos and who ate dinner in eating clubs...'
College is for learning and getting a degree, so best spend less time worrying about your social life.
College is for learning and getting a degree, so best spend less time worrying about your social life.
1
Robert, that's true, but those misapprehensions commonly exist and are a serious problem insofar as they prevent qualified students from applying to elite universities. Which is a shame, since research says that they benefit hugely from attending them.
2
A very interesting topic but I agree with other commenters that its focus on Ivy schools lessens its impact. I also found it interesting that while "Colleges may not realize it, but signals they send can project upper-middle-class values." the same can be said of reporters. Reading things like "...sipping Nescafe from mismatched mugs..." and "...students from undereducated families..." and "...his mother is a hospital cleaner who takes pride “in being part of the health care system"...” made me cringe. Not everyone chooses to follow a Martha Stewart lifestyle of consumerism, and certainly, while getting a college degree is a useful and laudable thing, we should surely be honoring the value of hard work wherever we find it.
149
If there's nothing wrong with working class values, what's wrong with "upper-middle class values"? Are the former noble and pure, the latter despicable?
6
"Colleges may not realize it, but signals they send can project upper-middle-class values."
If the parents worked hard to be part of the upper-middle-class, why should those values not be the ones to emulate?
Or should the students emulate the values of the one student's father who bought a fancy necklace, rather than pay his bills?
If the parents worked hard to be part of the upper-middle-class, why should those values not be the ones to emulate?
Or should the students emulate the values of the one student's father who bought a fancy necklace, rather than pay his bills?
1
I'm not sure what being educated has to do with Martha Stewart, or for that matter what Martha Stewart has to do with being upper middle rather than aspiring middle class! The reporter was merely describing the culture gap that these students face. You seem to want the reporter to pretend that social class doesn't exist, but event those of us who prefer the Bohemian side have to acknowledge that it is real, and effects not only displays of class affinity and knowledge but cultural understanding as well.
5
I was a first generation student, my parents were the first in their families to graduate high school. This is progress. I would never be ashamed of my family's income status. There is no need to apologize for hard working honest folks who were so supportive that they had a child make it up the next rung of the ladder. Congratulations to all those families and the people who lovingly supported these students. Cornell 79
63
If colleges are really interested in attracting first-generation students, they might consider abandoning admissions policies that favor those who are aware of certain cultural signifiers. For example, we hear that students do better in the process when they avoid "cliche" essay topics like working in a food pantry and instead write about sex or money or religion (but not in a way that suggests they're actually religious or anything.) Who is likely to know about this unwritten rule? Students whose parents attended elite colleges themselves. My non-college-graduate parents actually thought that my application chances would be hurt by checking the box on the application for their education level; I had read enough about the admissions process to know that if anything, it would help, but how many students in similar positions know that?
19
Students from advantaged backgrounds certainly do have these and many other advantages in the admissions process, but I think it's also true that admissions committees are aware of that. Of greater concern might be unfair advantages such as legacy preferences or the ability of wealthy parents to buy admissions with large donations, and the inexcusable fact that talented children in some public schools receive an education that doesn't prepare them for college-level work.
1
I agree with Mookie and Peter. I went to Cornell in the 70's and 80's (BA, MA, PhD) as the first in my family to attend college. Things are surely different now, but I got the same advice. This is your priority, make good on your opportunity.
I really have a hard time understanding this mentality that somehow these students need special treatment. Perhaps it is their peers who need it instead.
As a university mathematics professor, I only see that the students who need special treatment are the ones who come to me thinking they know more than the do.
I really have a hard time understanding this mentality that somehow these students need special treatment. Perhaps it is their peers who need it instead.
As a university mathematics professor, I only see that the students who need special treatment are the ones who come to me thinking they know more than the do.
29
And yet the research shows that intervention markedly improves the outcome for some of these students. You may have been a first generation student, but I don't think you were crossing the cultural and behavioral gap that some of these kids are.
2
The behavioral gap does not respect whether students are first generation or not, nor does academic preparation. I have first hand experience.
1
Preparing first-gen students for college can't begin during freshman orientation. Students whose parents (and grandparents, etc.) went to college will already be well ahead of the game at that point. Preparation must instead start in high school. Students with academic potential need to be identified and prepped early on in order to get them ready for the culture shock of a campus full of competitive students who aren't afraid to use their privilege and connections to get ahead. My grandparents were immigrants and neither of my parents went to college. I did well in school (top 10% and highest SATs in my class) but I had no clue which schools to apply to or how to write an application or how to conduct myself at campus interviews. I needed guidance at that point more than I did at college itself. Not everyone grows up in an environment where names like Stanford and Harvard are bandied about with the same ease as one might consider names of places to eat dinner. I was accepted at some rather prestigious schools (Ivy included) and chose one based solely on location. It turned out to be a poor fit, but I didn't even realize how wrong the place was for me until senior year. The rest of the time I blamed myself for just not being "right" for the place rather than the other way around.
11
This is a serious problem that was alluded to in the article and has been more fully examined elsewhere, including in the Times. Frequently, these kids get little counseling in high school and don't even know that the top schools are within their reach, e.g., that with generous needs-blind no-loan scholarship programs they are more affordable than a four-year state.
1
When I was an undergraduate at Dartmouth in the late 1970's, only 17 per cent of my classmates came from families whose annual income was in the lower half of the spectrum. Why do I remember this statistic? It is because my family's income was right at that 50 per cent mark (my parents were teachers). I don't recall if the figure was based on the median or mean, but in those days the difference between the two measures was not what it is now. Likewise, the offspring of the wealthy did not exude quite the same sense of entitlement, although there was still enough that young people of modest means very often did not apply to elite institutions because they thought they would not fit in. Elite institutions educate a disproportionate share of leaders. If they are serious about reducing social inequality, they need to ask their alumni if they are contributing to the problem. (Can we clone Robert Reich?) In the interim, if two or three of the Ivies were to jointly eliminate legacy preferences, make early decision viable for financial aid students (or axe it altogether), make internships and study abroad available to all, and ensure that the budget for "incidentals" reflects the cost of social participation, then we might have a genuine conversation about meritocracy in the "national" institutions. Oh -- and eliminate fraternities and sororities, whose unstated goal is all too often to perpetuate inequalities of money, gender, orientation, and (sometimes) ethnicity.
23
I like the way you think. My concern would be if the ivies eliminated legacy admissions, they would also lose those donation checks from alumnae.
I was struck by the statement that they wouldn't pair a non-aid student with student on financial aid as roommates. My daughter had no aid and roomed with a girl on full aid. They became great friends and post graduation are still roommates. It made my daughter more intensely aware if how privileged she is. I was one of the firsts for college and the mix of roommates is enlightening on both sides.
86
Whereas my Daughter could always tell who were getting free rides on her dorm floor. They were the ones partying before exams making it difficult to study for all the kids whose parents were paying full freight. Unlike your Daughter mine did not find the experience as enlightening.
3
Harvard's dorm room assignment policy struck me as misguided, too. My reaction is guided by my brother's experience as a cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Some background: Our father had enlisted in the Coast Guard at the Philippine station at Sangely Point, and his first job was Steward (he retired 22 years later as Chief Petty Officer). Back to my brother: his first roomie at the Academy was a son of the Academy Superintendent. I was under the impression that their pairing was deliberate -- someone found it socially poetic to put together a Steward's son and the Superintendent's son. They got along great, and their friendship served as a good start to what would become my brother's decades-long USCG career.
5
I was also struck by this--it doesn't make sense to pair all the students on financial aid together. You roommates often become your friends and having a wide variety of friends is one of the great parts about college. My first semester I had two roommates (in a one-room triple). I was on full aid, one was on partial aid and one had no financial aid. We certainly learned a lot from each other! (I remember a phone call before I got there along the lines of, "Should I bring the fridge or would you like to?" and I was thinking, "I need a fridge for my room????")
5
As the first in my family to graduate from college (Brown, 1980, Applied Math), whose father was our apartment building's superintendent and mom a clerk at Sears, my advise to other first generation college students is to put the victim card back in your wallet and take advantage of the precious opportunity you've been given to change your lives for the better.
Your real friends in college could care less about your economic status, whether they drive a Porsche or are dirt poor Those who do you can do without. Period.
Your real friends in college could care less about your economic status, whether they drive a Porsche or are dirt poor Those who do you can do without. Period.
122
However, it takes considerable emotional growth to be able to not care about the opinions of those who are not worthy of such concerns.
18
'...it takes considerable emotional growth...'
It takes character and this is the time to develop it.
It takes character and this is the time to develop it.
7
Good for you! I always told my children that there will always be someone prettier/more handsome, and richer than you, so get over it now!
One can either let privilege get in the way or not - it is ones own choice. There are many, many upper middle class students at prestigious colleges who don't have trust funds, and are not touring Europe on spring break. Yes, those who enjoy enormous wealth and privilege always stand out, but most are not like that. Even a family whose parents were educated in the Ivies themselves and earn $200,000 a year, but have two children in college, are not providing them with BMW's and trips to St Bart's for spring break.
Get over it...
One can either let privilege get in the way or not - it is ones own choice. There are many, many upper middle class students at prestigious colleges who don't have trust funds, and are not touring Europe on spring break. Yes, those who enjoy enormous wealth and privilege always stand out, but most are not like that. Even a family whose parents were educated in the Ivies themselves and earn $200,000 a year, but have two children in college, are not providing them with BMW's and trips to St Bart's for spring break.
Get over it...
3
In the Sixties, I was first in my large extended family to go to an Ivy. My father's advice was good then, and good now. Your first job is to be a student, so do it well and thereby honor your family. If you can't affod the fashionable clothes or the ski trips, so what? You have a wonderful opportunity which is denied to many others. Make the most of it.
100
That's very true, but it can be painful and embarrassing to realize you have to wear shabby clothes or not go on the spring break trip to Fort Lauderdale, or when others are discussing their new cars or condos, and you have to admit to being poor.
3
Well, all families have a first generation attending college. I'm the second, my parents were first and the only children in their large, working-class families. They went to state colleges. These kids, all bright no doubt, are being catapulted into the very class the narrative maligns as the Privileged. Their efforts, and the schools', to refine and amplify as a distinct cultural identity their humble origins looks more like fashion than a meaningful movement. Go to a state school if you want to see where real gains are being made.
18
Im not sure this true.
===
At the "flagship" state schools, student behavior is not that different from the ivy-league and elite liberal arts schools I attended. The same social pressures exist and the same potential for social isolation for "first gen" students exists. We can't overlook the tremendous benefit that social grooming has on our upbringing and that comes from having a family member who has blazed the trail for you.
===
At the "flagship" state schools, student behavior is not that different from the ivy-league and elite liberal arts schools I attended. The same social pressures exist and the same potential for social isolation for "first gen" students exists. We can't overlook the tremendous benefit that social grooming has on our upbringing and that comes from having a family member who has blazed the trail for you.
13
'... We can't overlook the tremendous benefit that social grooming has on our upbringing and that comes from having a family member who has blazed the trail for you...'
So what? There will always be people who have had it easier than you. Best not encourage young people to see themselves as victims, as they need little encouragement to do so.
So what? There will always be people who have had it easier than you. Best not encourage young people to see themselves as victims, as they need little encouragement to do so.
1
Drive around many flagship state schools and look at the cars in the student lots. Agreed, often similar to private schools.
5
Boo Hoo. Get over it. The transition from one social class to another always comes with adjustments. The good news is that these kids are the American dream who will reap the benefits of climbing the social ladder. (i.e. Michelle Obama). Furthermore, the distinctions only start in college. It will continue throughout their lives, so don't expect the colleges to be responsible for their adjustment. They will have to be.
Both my husband & I were children of immigrants, first generation college graduates--my husband, an Ivy League graduate. I still remember being in a play group with other young wealthy mothers with nannies who were leaving for their Caribbean vacations while I was home still worrying about paying off student debt. So what. That was then, and today is now. I live a comfortable, upper middle class life and am grateful!!
My husband & I
Both my husband & I were children of immigrants, first generation college graduates--my husband, an Ivy League graduate. I still remember being in a play group with other young wealthy mothers with nannies who were leaving for their Caribbean vacations while I was home still worrying about paying off student debt. So what. That was then, and today is now. I live a comfortable, upper middle class life and am grateful!!
My husband & I
45
I did not hear any boo hoos from these students. I wish (as a first gen) that I had had an organization like that when I went to school.
70
If you heard Boo-hoo ing blame the author of the piece, not the undergraduates. I don't think they're whining, I think they're talking about their experiences in spaces that claim equality, and over look inequities.
And the fact that you live a comfortable middle class life, has nothing to do with what they're going through right at this moment. They're not biting the hand that feeds them, they're saying it's hard. And I doubt that all of you who are complaining about these students, would have said anything different when you were 18, 19, or 20. It's nice to live in hindsight, with a lap full of experiences under your belt isn't it?
And the fact that you live a comfortable middle class life, has nothing to do with what they're going through right at this moment. They're not biting the hand that feeds them, they're saying it's hard. And I doubt that all of you who are complaining about these students, would have said anything different when you were 18, 19, or 20. It's nice to live in hindsight, with a lap full of experiences under your belt isn't it?
12
And let me guess? Those immigrants were from European countries who were accepted into middle-class communities and you were able to go to high schools that actually prepared you to succeed. Not the case for most of these students mentioned, hence the story. You totally missed the point and have been brainwashed into the "pick yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality that is so prevalent today. Things aren't like they were in the 1950s and 60s anymore.
6
One topic that the article does not address is whether the admitted students are prepared for the rigor of college. I do not mean to imply that the admitted students are not bright. Far from it, as Ana's SAT of 2200 is exceptional given she grew up in poverty.
Instead, a major disadvantage that these students face is that their high schools did not demand much of them. Some students may have been able to get by on their brains alone, and may have never developed good study habits.
In contrast, the workload at the best public and private schools is quite heavy and demanding. My children are fortunate to attend a highly regarded public school system. About 20% of our graduates will get SAT scores above 2200, and a smaller fraction of our students attend the Ivy League. However, regardless of where they are admitted, because of the preparation, they invariably find college easy, whether it is Harvard at one extreme, or U. of Massachusetts at the other.
If the country is to properly educate the best and brightest, regardless of family income, we need to start with a strong educational system much earlier than college.
Instead, a major disadvantage that these students face is that their high schools did not demand much of them. Some students may have been able to get by on their brains alone, and may have never developed good study habits.
In contrast, the workload at the best public and private schools is quite heavy and demanding. My children are fortunate to attend a highly regarded public school system. About 20% of our graduates will get SAT scores above 2200, and a smaller fraction of our students attend the Ivy League. However, regardless of where they are admitted, because of the preparation, they invariably find college easy, whether it is Harvard at one extreme, or U. of Massachusetts at the other.
If the country is to properly educate the best and brightest, regardless of family income, we need to start with a strong educational system much earlier than college.
27
I agree. I was a first gen student that was very bright and got good grades. I went to a few different schools in my life, but my last 3 years in a system that was not the toughest. Even though I did well on the SATs etc., and got good grades, it was easy because the work load was. I had no study skills as I rarely studied. Freshman year was a killer, I had to learn to study! And, no help either, all sink or swim!
4
Lots of wealthy students who have private tutors haven't developed good study habits. They just have parents who can pay for them to be tutored. And not only are they often in SAT classes, they have tutoring for AP courses. In other words, I'm not sure the students from impoverished families who have outstanding SAT scores aren't more capable than their classmates who are economically privileged, even if their public schools weren't as demanding.
For the record, I don't believe our country will ever have "a strong educational system much earlier than college" as long as the wealthy can pay for private school.
In the meantime, I believe a lot of motivated students from underprivileged backgrounds will experience great success.
For the record, I don't believe our country will ever have "a strong educational system much earlier than college" as long as the wealthy can pay for private school.
In the meantime, I believe a lot of motivated students from underprivileged backgrounds will experience great success.
1
Agreed.
Even in the 1980s at my expensive renowned college, 50% of the solidly middle and upper middle class students dropped out by the end of the first year. They had coasted through high school on their brains and were unprepared for the amount and difficulty of the coursework.
It has gotten even worse, as almost no student is ever considered 'failing' in high school, so they have a mistaken sense of superiority, because they have never actually been challenged.
Even in the 1980s at my expensive renowned college, 50% of the solidly middle and upper middle class students dropped out by the end of the first year. They had coasted through high school on their brains and were unprepared for the amount and difficulty of the coursework.
It has gotten even worse, as almost no student is ever considered 'failing' in high school, so they have a mistaken sense of superiority, because they have never actually been challenged.
2
Please given me a break. I took 7 1/2 years to get through college, going to a community college and then a four year university, both which were not Ivy league but allowed me to be all I chose to be, paying my own way, working full time, taking 2 courses each semester and in the summer, eating burgers to survive. I did not spend my time talking about unfairness, or people who were more advantaged than me, or inequality but instead worked my butt of to get some place.Getting others to not wear $1000 jackets or getting Uncle Sam to buy everyone one is mot going to make anyone smarter, be a better person or achieve more in life.
47
Did this article talk about "unfairness?" I guess I missed that part. I thought that the article was essentially about the discomfort felt by first gen college students when confronted by others who were middle or upper class and who didn't recognize or have a clue that not everyone goes home or to the Bahamas for Xmas.
The number of resentful responses to the article because such students weren't deemed appropriately "grateful" just expose exactly what these students were dealing with in their colleges. Man, you "grateful" responders went to college but you seemed to have learned nothing about what it is to be a human being. What a country: a fine education, a good job and suddenly the possibility offered to others is seen as a way to have them shut up about any pain or discomfort they might feel. You just don't want to hear about it and you sure as h**l don't want to have to deal with it. A perfect reflection of Congress.
The number of resentful responses to the article because such students weren't deemed appropriately "grateful" just expose exactly what these students were dealing with in their colleges. Man, you "grateful" responders went to college but you seemed to have learned nothing about what it is to be a human being. What a country: a fine education, a good job and suddenly the possibility offered to others is seen as a way to have them shut up about any pain or discomfort they might feel. You just don't want to hear about it and you sure as h**l don't want to have to deal with it. A perfect reflection of Congress.
15
How many miles of broken glass did you crawl over to get to school each day? You left that part out.
4
And you walked uphill both ways, presumably...
This article can be read in two ways, glass half-empty or glass half-full. One the one hand, students--rich or poor--should go to college and study, not gaze at their navels, and then make their own breaks. On the other, making breaks for themselves is just what these students are doing. Too bad that, with its touchy-feely tone, thearticle fails to see them in that perspective. Elite schools are, that is, not failing these young people. Rather, these students are responding to the challenges and opportunities that those schools present, and learning at the same time to how respond to the challenges and opportunities of later life. These schools are failing, ironically, those among the initially intimidating more affluent students who go to these schools and screw around rather than getting educations, unlike--for example--the admirable Hung Pham.
8
The student who got a degree in Art History, but did not know the name of any Renaissance painters when he first got to school?
That is called 'being unprepared' and with free libraries and the internet, that is not to be admired or played for sympathy.
That is called 'being unprepared' and with free libraries and the internet, that is not to be admired or played for sympathy.
3
In fairness, it was the student's first Art History course.
3
Part of privilege is, of course, not recognizing one's own privilege. This article speaks to me more about the cluelessness of the elite than about the cluelessness of the first generation students.
123
"This article speaks to me more about the cluelessness of the elite than about the cluelessness of the first generation students."
You know, Eleanor Roosevelt and the man she married were highly privileged, and they weren't clueless. You can say the same about the many other rich people who head charities and actually visit and work with those for whom they raise money. Come to New York City. You'll see a lot of privileged people doing a lot of good.
But you're right. If these kids made it into Ivy League colleges with no special dispensations, they'll do just fine -- just like the rest of us who were the first of our families to go to college.
You know, Eleanor Roosevelt and the man she married were highly privileged, and they weren't clueless. You can say the same about the many other rich people who head charities and actually visit and work with those for whom they raise money. Come to New York City. You'll see a lot of privileged people doing a lot of good.
But you're right. If these kids made it into Ivy League colleges with no special dispensations, they'll do just fine -- just like the rest of us who were the first of our families to go to college.
7
Some people were born privileged. Others make their own way to the top and the best way to that is to not waste time thinking about how much easier other people have it.
The preparation for first-generation college-goers happens in high school, so if the high school is under-resourced (which it usually is), the opportunities to prepare will be lacking. I taught for a high school program (Saturdays and summers) that first-generation goers had to apply for, and upon acceptance received a college preparatory curriculum in addition to their regular schooling and the assistance of a highly qualified counselor to support the college application and preparation process. It was a very supportive, federally funded, rigorous academic program. The need for additional community-based scholarships is also substantial. With that, first generation college goers are substantively assisted in their academic and personal goals.
Please support the Upward Bound program.
Please support the Upward Bound program.
18
I was a tutor/counselor for my university's Upward Bound, and much later was a counselor for a sister program (an Educational Opportunity Center). The university I now work for has an Upward Bound program. The "rising seniors" (those entering their last year of high school) are offered 3-week internships during their summer stay on campus. I had the privilege of supervising an intern last summer and will be interviewing program participants again this year. TRIO programs are a lighthouse to these students!
3
THANK YOU for this article and the issues which are highlighted here. TRIO Programs like Upward Bound and Talent Search have been doing this work for 50 years.
There is an astounding and ironic layer of elitism here examining a decidedly non-elite culture ... a Wellesley writer-in-residence interviews Harvard students, administrators from Harvard, a junior from Brown, organizing efforts at Yale, Columbia, & Princeton, first generation data from other Ivy colleges, another student from Georgetown, Prof. Stephens from Northwestern (who does terrific work and was educated at Stanford and Williams), and Caroline Hoxby from Stanford. Why, why, WHY do these articles always cite the Hoxby work when it represents one tiny slice of the excellent literature on low income/first gen individuals? Thank goodness the author found Tom Mortenson from the Pell Institute. I hope that the next version of this article finds first generation and low income students from the dozens of institutions near Wellesley which have a TRIO Program that engages these students in access to the focus, resources, and services for huge success. You missed the boat, I mean yacht.
There is an astounding and ironic layer of elitism here examining a decidedly non-elite culture ... a Wellesley writer-in-residence interviews Harvard students, administrators from Harvard, a junior from Brown, organizing efforts at Yale, Columbia, & Princeton, first generation data from other Ivy colleges, another student from Georgetown, Prof. Stephens from Northwestern (who does terrific work and was educated at Stanford and Williams), and Caroline Hoxby from Stanford. Why, why, WHY do these articles always cite the Hoxby work when it represents one tiny slice of the excellent literature on low income/first gen individuals? Thank goodness the author found Tom Mortenson from the Pell Institute. I hope that the next version of this article finds first generation and low income students from the dozens of institutions near Wellesley which have a TRIO Program that engages these students in access to the focus, resources, and services for huge success. You missed the boat, I mean yacht.
25
There's an implicit assumption in this piece about what constitutes "college," at least in the sense of something newsworthy when someone who is the first generation in their family makes it to "college." Within the scope of the article that means matriculating at one of the Ivies, or one of the handful of top-rated liberal arts college. That's a perspective that both encourages the (growing, and misbegotten) salience of the reputational rankings in higher education (see Scott Sondage's takedown of this idea in the March 25 Book Review) and fails to represent the hundreds of institutions large and small that have worked to build ladders for first-generation students to use on their climb.
10
These are amazing stories, and as a member of an admissions committee of a medical school, I read a lot of them, and meet many of the striving, achieving first generation students in whose awe I constantly find myself. The programs at the elite schools are overdue and wonderful.
However, there are other factors that lead students in their late adolescence, a most awkward time, to feel out of place in college. Although both my parents went to Ivy Leagues universities, due to the death of my father at a very young age, my family was middle class, barely. I paid for college with small savings and my father's social security death benefits. I never went on vacation or on Spring Break. I never had new clothes. I never went out to eat unless the dining hall was closed. I bought my books (because we had to) but otherwise lived completely hand to mouth. I worked summers. The difference was that college in my family was the expectation, and there was never a thought of any of us not attending.
The difference between me and them is not purely economic; it is cognitive. I was born knowing I would go to college, despite our radically changed circumstances that might have threatened that dream. The children of these First Generation scholars will have that same knowledge. And our country and world will be greater for it.
However, there are other factors that lead students in their late adolescence, a most awkward time, to feel out of place in college. Although both my parents went to Ivy Leagues universities, due to the death of my father at a very young age, my family was middle class, barely. I paid for college with small savings and my father's social security death benefits. I never went on vacation or on Spring Break. I never had new clothes. I never went out to eat unless the dining hall was closed. I bought my books (because we had to) but otherwise lived completely hand to mouth. I worked summers. The difference was that college in my family was the expectation, and there was never a thought of any of us not attending.
The difference between me and them is not purely economic; it is cognitive. I was born knowing I would go to college, despite our radically changed circumstances that might have threatened that dream. The children of these First Generation scholars will have that same knowledge. And our country and world will be greater for it.
21
Multiple articles published here have shown that unfortunately you are never able to "catch up" to your peers down the road even with attendance at the top 10.
7
But your children will and that is the American Dream.
2
But you will do better than your high school peers and your parents, so why not celebrate that, instead of what you do not have?
4
Interesting. Having been a first gen graduate some 40 years ago, it was much easier then for someone from the bottom 20% (the prototype white family in a trailer) to work one's way through school with a full time night job and still go on to graduate school than it is today. My wife's path to her STEM PhD was much more difficult with its inherent difficulties and overcoming stereotypes. Luckily, our life long career as scientists was fulfilling, partly due to our mentoring of numerous first gen students who still face social stigma for their backgrounds. Watching my wife counsel a female student to stay in college when her family and friends in her rural community considered her "uppity" and "too full of herself" for going to a 4 year public university was heartbreaking and all still true even in this day and age.
61
Family and cultural resistance is very hard to overcome. I think sometimes they may be harder than income differences.
11
I'm always troubled by these articles, which seem to paint success as making poorer students comfortable in elite institutions so that they too can join the elite. The problem with the American system is not that there is no mobility, but even when there is mobility, it's exactly the wrong kind. The elite, in particular first gens, are taught they deserve their elite status because they've worked harder, or are smarter, or overcame disadvantages, or are morally better. This then provides them with the ability later on to treat everyone else as beneath them, intellectually, spiritually, and morally. That's the problem.
30
They are smarter and work harder and have overcome disadvantages. That should be celebrated. How they treat people after that is up to them but hopefully it is with pride and gratitude and helping those who come later. Certainly no reason to diminish their accomplishment.
13
"They are smarter and work harder and have overcome disadvantages. " That is certainly what they and their parents would like to think.
The chant at a Harvard-UMass game. "You're beating us now but you'll work for us later." (And that story was told to me by a Harvard alum who thought it made Harvard more appealing.)
The chant at a Harvard-UMass game. "You're beating us now but you'll work for us later." (And that story was told to me by a Harvard alum who thought it made Harvard more appealing.)
5
After I got my Ivy League degree, my family still consisted of my 8th grade educated mom, my garbage man uncle and my post office working brother-in-law, among so many other working class stiffs.
I know what my roots are and where I came from and to suggest that a stellar education somehow transformed me into an elitist who looks down his nose at other is insulting to the family that raised me and made me who I am.
I know what my roots are and where I came from and to suggest that a stellar education somehow transformed me into an elitist who looks down his nose at other is insulting to the family that raised me and made me who I am.
20
"It's not our fault." As a fellow first-gen Harvard student, I find this quite embarrassing. Once again an systematic class issue is reduced to self-indulgent chatter about emotions, identity, and the body. This is an important issue, but it has nothing to do with "coming out," and everything to do with politics.
17
Great article that sheds some light on the real world for a change. Schools such as Harvard need to take the lead on the final, most significant step toward leveling the economic playing field: do away with legacy preferences and make room for more outstanding first generation students. Let's make our system more meritocratic and truly reap the benefits of our diverse and talented population.
8
I still remember two questions on my application to Harvard:
1. what do your parents do for a living
2. do you have any alumni?
Not exactly a level playing field
1. what do your parents do for a living
2. do you have any alumni?
Not exactly a level playing field
14
'...Not exactly a level playing field...'
Why would anyone expect it to be?
Why would anyone expect it to be?
2
Cry me a river! As a first gen high school grad, child of immigrants, who worked through college and law school, it is hard for me to feel their pain. The lack of a $700 down coat and Hampton vacations pales in comparison to the gift they have: to study at some of the best schools in the nation. Buckle down, work hard and stop worrying about "income inequality." 30 years from now most of them will send their own children off to these same schools with expensive clothing and appreciation for the finer things in life. It is a great country, think positive and stop playing the victim. And if you are unhappy and lonely, transfer. I am sure the local community college or state U would love to have you!
89
I disagree. The world, or some people in this world, are trying to tell these young people that they do not belong. They are sensitive enough to hear that subliminal message, though intellectually they know they do belong. So they struggle with conflicting messages. That is not the same thing as "playing the victim." If we know these great peer-to-peer support programs work and give students confidence, shouldn't we encourage these programs?
75
Oh, be nicer. You struggled, but what if you hadn't had to as much? We are losing talented individuals because academics are only one part of the college experience, and once they are off track, they are lost forever. Give them a break; it costs you nothing and it gives them, and us, a fighting chance.
31
No matter how you 'doth protest too much', inequality of income and opportunity is real and the Horatio Alger lovin', pick yourself up by your bootstraps rattlin', subtle disdain dog whistle of 'just work harder' are fictions that hide a truth whose denials weaken our society. Unlike your views, mine are born via the research and clear economic data. If that data remains on the trajectory it is on then most of "them" will not send "their own children off to these same schools"; denial of inequality will improve nothing.
Admitting and acknowledging hardship & differences and expressing a desire for things to be different and perhaps better for others and ourselves are not "playing the victim." It's a courageous world-view neither giving in to pessimism nor giving up in a country that is largely relegating opportunity to the genetic lottery and luck. When a student cannot buy books while peers wear $700.00 coats it's a visceral and evocative reminder of such inequalities.
Perhaps you should reread the article because the student never bemoaned not having that coat. Not having textbooks in the wealthiest country history has ever known is a societally imposed hardship. We have decided those with less money are less important. We demonstrate this via our tax system, the chances one is given, our contempt for the poor and our national priorities. We spend 2+ billion a day on defense, tax breaks to Corps. but we resist making life easier for those who have less. We must do better.
Admitting and acknowledging hardship & differences and expressing a desire for things to be different and perhaps better for others and ourselves are not "playing the victim." It's a courageous world-view neither giving in to pessimism nor giving up in a country that is largely relegating opportunity to the genetic lottery and luck. When a student cannot buy books while peers wear $700.00 coats it's a visceral and evocative reminder of such inequalities.
Perhaps you should reread the article because the student never bemoaned not having that coat. Not having textbooks in the wealthiest country history has ever known is a societally imposed hardship. We have decided those with less money are less important. We demonstrate this via our tax system, the chances one is given, our contempt for the poor and our national priorities. We spend 2+ billion a day on defense, tax breaks to Corps. but we resist making life easier for those who have less. We must do better.
111
How can we manage to inoculate our own under performing students and their families with their drive?
Or do you have to be born hungry?
Or do you have to be born hungry?
1
I am the first in my immediate family to have attended college. Indeed, my older brother did not finish high school, having walked out one day in his senior year when the school librarian screamed at him for lowering a blind to stop the sun from hitting his eyes. He never went back.
One aspect of being the first is that one's parents know little about college and what it entails. The fact that it is, or is supposed to be, at least a 60 hour per week job escapes their notice. All they hear about in regard to colleges are beer and sex.
By the end of my freshman year, I came to understand that my father and my older sibling and his wife would undermine my college career and efforts. So, I felt I was forced to break off any support from home and pay all of my way forward for the next three years. This meant that I had very little money, even though at one point I was working seven days a week in addition to attending classes and doing homework/research. My dad, pleased to be relieved of the financial burden, never seemed to notice or inquire about how difficult it was just to get by.
My situation was far from unique and, indeed, I was very fortunate to get a prestigious job during my second year of college and to advance rapidly. I knew of one other student from my high school who took to living in his car at Penn State. I met a fellow student who, lacking a meal plan on weekends, decided the best way to save money was not to eat, at all, on Saturdays and Sundays.
One aspect of being the first is that one's parents know little about college and what it entails. The fact that it is, or is supposed to be, at least a 60 hour per week job escapes their notice. All they hear about in regard to colleges are beer and sex.
By the end of my freshman year, I came to understand that my father and my older sibling and his wife would undermine my college career and efforts. So, I felt I was forced to break off any support from home and pay all of my way forward for the next three years. This meant that I had very little money, even though at one point I was working seven days a week in addition to attending classes and doing homework/research. My dad, pleased to be relieved of the financial burden, never seemed to notice or inquire about how difficult it was just to get by.
My situation was far from unique and, indeed, I was very fortunate to get a prestigious job during my second year of college and to advance rapidly. I knew of one other student from my high school who took to living in his car at Penn State. I met a fellow student who, lacking a meal plan on weekends, decided the best way to save money was not to eat, at all, on Saturdays and Sundays.
66
I had the same problem and tried to become financially independent, but my parents would not give up the taX deduction! (I can laugh now.) I put myself through school and spending money was the least of my worries. Years later, hearing my mother tell my husband how college had changed my personality, I used to be such a nice quiet girl, I knew I had made the right choice. It's not for everyone, some can't imagine being away from their families and culture, but sometimes you have too.
6
Bet they didn't spend much time whining about how they felt 'uncomfortable' or that others had more expensive coats than they did.
2
And then there we the searches for 'free food' around campus---church suppers, open houses. Lived for one 10-week quarter at a big 10 university on p-nut butter sandwiches with Wonder Bread and Tang...lost 25 pounds but graduated with honors....
4
This is one of the best articles I've ever read on this subject. In my medical school class more than 50% of students were children of doctors. If America wishes to believe the fantasy of opportunities for all motivated, hard working children, then the ideas described here need to flourish.
One of thecharacteristicist of the children of privilege is the comfort and confidence they display in Colete and professional settings. That's what leads to advancement.
One of thecharacteristicist of the children of privilege is the comfort and confidence they display in Colete and professional settings. That's what leads to advancement.
20
Maybe so. But here is another point of view. One of the reasons my daughter left her competitive DC-based college after one year was precisely because of "children of privilege." She was one of the few students she knew who was paying part of her way through school, and her peers, whose parents were completely footing the bill, were more concerned with partying and traveling than anything else. She was the only one to pay her own way on their spring break trip. Ultimately, she took a year off and is now returning to college at a state school where she will be happy to find fewer so-called children of privilege. This article proves to me a remarkable spirit and deep motivation among first-gen students. I don't think they need to emulate anyone but themselves.
8
However, your daughter and the children described here are going to miss out on the invisible "carte blanche" that comes with learning to walk and talk like the educated-privileged class.
People are bound by sphyschology and sociology to self-associate and self select.Like hires like.
== Her chances of being recruited by a competitive firm would certainly be higher had she stayed in that uncomfortable atmosphere and learned to play along. I'm sure that she will, however, acquire more "grit" and end up successful
People are bound by sphyschology and sociology to self-associate and self select.Like hires like.
== Her chances of being recruited by a competitive firm would certainly be higher had she stayed in that uncomfortable atmosphere and learned to play along. I'm sure that she will, however, acquire more "grit" and end up successful
7
Funny. My wife and I pay full freight for my daughter at over $ 60,000 a year. Her experience is the direct opposite of your daughter. While she studies non-stop the "first-generation" kids who are getting free rides party like its 1999.
And with the current clamor for "diversity" in the corporate workplace these same mediocre students will ascend the corporate ladder regardless of their competency.
And with the current clamor for "diversity" in the corporate workplace these same mediocre students will ascend the corporate ladder regardless of their competency.
1
Great article about an important subject but it dwelt to much on Ivy League universities. Any private university is expensive and an opportunity/challenge for a 1Gen student.
I went to the U of Southern California, aka "University of Spoiled Children." Not only was I the first in my family to attend university out of 8 children, but my parents did not even finish high school. I worked 3 jobs to afford an education which did not meet the standards I expected.
The stereotype described by Mr. Munster at Harvard applied to me as well. I did not have any of the advantages other WASPs had and nor did I get the preferential treatment other students of lower income groups received. I should have played the gay card back in '81.
The fact my fellow students were in frats, drove new BMWs or were lauded by the university for having a start-up (funded by family money!) was not the real sore point as the article contends. The sore spot was that these same privileged students were the ones on student boards making financial decisions affecting everyone, such as raising student and parking fees. Plus they received "scholarships" for community participation. Those of us who were involved in high school and were leaders, now had to work to pay for our food, rent, transportation, etc. We did not have the luxury to volunteer on student or community boards. I never begrudged them for having an easy life but I do hold the university accountable which allowed this caste system.
I went to the U of Southern California, aka "University of Spoiled Children." Not only was I the first in my family to attend university out of 8 children, but my parents did not even finish high school. I worked 3 jobs to afford an education which did not meet the standards I expected.
The stereotype described by Mr. Munster at Harvard applied to me as well. I did not have any of the advantages other WASPs had and nor did I get the preferential treatment other students of lower income groups received. I should have played the gay card back in '81.
The fact my fellow students were in frats, drove new BMWs or were lauded by the university for having a start-up (funded by family money!) was not the real sore point as the article contends. The sore spot was that these same privileged students were the ones on student boards making financial decisions affecting everyone, such as raising student and parking fees. Plus they received "scholarships" for community participation. Those of us who were involved in high school and were leaders, now had to work to pay for our food, rent, transportation, etc. We did not have the luxury to volunteer on student or community boards. I never begrudged them for having an easy life but I do hold the university accountable which allowed this caste system.
121
Income inequality is not an issue restricted to what the Times calls "elite" institutions. It is present on all campuses. Nor is student poverty necessarily a first generation issue. People can have no money to spend on outrageous fripperies for a variety of reasons, however far they are generationally from arrival in this county. Poverty can also be a matter of refusing to participate in grotesque consumerism while a student even if one has the funds to do otherwise. And there are even some wealthy people who refuse to participate in the idiocy of jackets that cost $1000, not because they are poor but because a jacket that costs so much is obscene.
40
I am the youngest of five kids and I was the first in my family to get a college degree. This was "back in the day" when CUNY Open Admissions guaranteed a spot for any NYC High School graduate. I went to Brooklyn College (an excellent school both then and now) and then transferred to SUNY New Paltz. I went on to get a M.A. from NYU. I am currently a teacher and college professor.
Both of my sisters followed my lead and obtained college degrees and advanced degrees. One is a retired Librarian (MS Pratt) the other is a Physical Therapist (NYU).
Having free access to quality education made the difference for working class kids to get a education. CUNY and SUNY still offer relatively low-cost options for
Both of my sisters followed my lead and obtained college degrees and advanced degrees. One is a retired Librarian (MS Pratt) the other is a Physical Therapist (NYU).
Having free access to quality education made the difference for working class kids to get a education. CUNY and SUNY still offer relatively low-cost options for
45
passed from parents to uncle to Greyhound on a 400 mile
journey, putting thousands between myself and family. Walking across
the campus, my trunk behind me, carrying a bag of house plants:
I could see the parking lot filled with family sedans. I knew that I did not fit in,
the next 8 months of insomnia, failure to read social signals and academic floundering, bore that impression out. A year at community college near home had done nothing to prepare me.
This focus on the experience of first-gen students is welcome to myself and my friends who lived this as an earlier cohort. 12 years and 4 institutions later I had that degree. 2 graduate degrees and a stint teaching the entitled children of my 'betters', were easier to accomplish than that first big step. But, I could never make myself at home in an environment that ran on the hidden class system. Bravo to the young folks and the administrators who are acknowledging class as a culture, irrespective of ethnicity and that it transcends education. The more elite a system the brighter the light needs to be to show the hidden corners of denial.
This is not about who has it harder, the students at a community college or in the Ivy League. This is about honouring personal experience, the role of community in supporting our children to do and be the best that can in a system that celebrates and supports them. Would that had existed for myself 39 years ago.