Better Colleges Failing to Lure Talented Poor-- NYT Mar 16 Related to this discussion.
The students often are unaware of the amount of financial aid available or simply do not consider a top college because they have never met someone who attended one, according to the study’s authors, other experts and high school guidance counselors.
“A lot of low-income and middle-income students have the inclination to stay local, at known colleges, which is understandable when you think about it,” said George Moran, a guidance counselor at Central Magnet High School in Bridgeport, Conn. “They didn’t have any other examples, any models — who’s ever heard of Bowdoin College?”
Whatever the reasons, the choice frequently has major consequences. The colleges that most low-income students attend have fewer resources and lower graduation rates than selective colleges, and many students who attend a local college do not graduate. Those who do graduate can miss out on the career opportunities that top colleges offer.
Fascinating bias, there, in observations. MAYBE some of those low-income students are all too well aware of just what a gamble such an educational choice is to begin with-- and that, particularly if you come into those "career opportunities" without the network of family connections that high SES provide, you may STILL lack those opportunities that your equally capable (but better "prepared") peers will have.
I'm not sure that the calculus reflected by the graphic in this article is entirely WRONG, in other words.
The bias seems to be that OF COURSE high achieving students want to-- and should-- attend an elite college.
Well, for some families, kids are raised to believe that cost IS a factor. We're not even 'poor' by those standards and we've raised our daughter to look at this more critically.
The bottom line is that coming from her background, an Ivy diploma
won't open the same doors as it will for someone from an East Coast boarding school upbringing. She doesn't have the network. She doesn't sail or golf (well, not really), she doesn't play tennis, etc. And this is with parents who have made a concerted EFFORT to get her some minimal exposure to those cultural facets because we
know what it means to move in a circle that your early years never prepared you for. Well, I know, anyway. You feel gauche and awkward, and everyone around you knows it too.
I'm not sure why it is such a big deal if HG+ kids decide to go to {LocalPublicUni} rather than Harvard.
Even "not going to college"
is a completely valid option for some subset of those high achieving students. Ever hear of multipotentiality? Why rack up 100K in educational debt when your first love is hands on cabinet-making anyway? Why
can't a craftsperson be someone PG? I don't consider that a "waste" in the way that these authors clearly do.
I'm also not sure that I agree with their conclusion that elite colleges are "failing to reach out" to low SES students sufficiently well, or the numbers wouldn't say what they do.
Bottom line, elite schools are populated by majorities which are "elite" in the SES sense. There is a 'fit' issue here that I think is being ignored. I
could have attended any one of five of those elite schools... (yes, really-- I had acceptances), but CHOSE not to do that for 'fit' reasons. I didn't want to be "that weird girl from the sticks," and a few campus visits taught me in very short order that there was a reason for high attrition among students like myself. Local Uni
fit better, and was far less financially risky, to boot.
