When I was sitting at the transfer student orientation last summer, I was sitting alone, scanning the room hoping to make some friends at my new school. Transfer students take a different path, I thought, we go to community college to save money, and to work part time to save up before the big move to a four-year. But here at the big fancy private school, I realized most transfer students were just kids who got bored after their first two years at a different fancy private school and wanted to come to a new one (disclaimer: this isn’t always the case). So I’m sitting alone, and this guy comes to sit next to me. We start chatting and eventually get on the topic of tuition, as I voice my concerns about how I will afford this school, he proceeds to say, “well I hope they take AMEX” and laughs. In a brief interaction, I realized he would likely be leaving this school with no debt, and I would be leaving with over $80,000.
In college we are told to work hard, push through those sleepless nights, and it will all pay off. And sometimes it does. But as Matt O’Brian writes for the Washington Post, rich kids have an advantage. And not just financially, because that’s an obvious fact.
"opportunity hoarding," includes everything from legacy college admissions to unpaid internships that let affluent parents rig the game a little more in their children's favor.
On the campus of an affluent and prestigious private school, there is an obvious divide. While I’m sitting in class, worrying about if I can financially manage to take one day off my part time job to study more for midterms ... then glance over the shoulder at the girl’s computer screen in front of me as she scrolls through the Alexander Wang website and casually adds a $275 bralette to her shopping cart. And there’s a false hope that if less advantaged kids just work a little harder, they could get ahead, but the truth of the matter is that there are some people whose privilege will do all the work for them.
“[L]ow-income kids would still have a hard time getting ahead. That's, in part, because they're targets for diploma mills that load them up with debt, but not a lot of prospects. And even if they do get a good degree, at least when it comes to black families, they're more likely to still live in impoverished neighborhoods that keep them disconnected from opportunities.”
The burden of student debt has proven to be a huge obstacle. Between a rich college graduate and a poor one, with the same credentials, the same golden ticket aka degree from that prestigious university, working the same job … the poor kid will still struggle to live a comfortable life. Because the hard earned income will go to paying off the student debt and they will continue to sacrifice luxuries because of that.
There are of course students who come from wealthy backgrounds, who work just as hard to get to where they are, and are fortunate to not have to graduate with mountains of student debt. But we can’t deny that there is also a large portion of students who have it easy. And their ride to the top is a nice elevator, while the rest of us are taking the stairs.
http://digitalsynopsis.com/inspiration/privileged-kids-on-a-plate-pencilsword-toby-morris/
I genuinely think that this is a great post and can totally relate.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though the middle class suffer the most as far as their college selection goes. The rich can pay it without any concern while the poor will be handed financial aid like it's nothing and go for free.
The middle class, the family who makes 90k a year but has a 60k tuition alone is just ridiculous. And for governments and other institutions to think that the 90k annual salary will be sufficient enough to cover the tuition amongst other things - like say, I don't know, food and a home? - is just fu%*ing stupid.
But then again, like you said, a lot of the rich may deserve it and be hard working enough to own those luxuries.
Personally, I have no solution to this problem but it really puts into perspective why the topic of "middle class" is always brought up.
Unfortunately, this is the reality in our nation today. The wealth inequality gap is just getting worse too. We as a country don't talk about it much but the rich-poor divide is incredibly strong especially in institutions of higher education. You're right-- rich kids ride the elevator while the poor and to some extent the middle classes must take the stairs. The only way we can ameliorate this issue is by investing more into our middle class. The government has to take into account that even a salaried income is simply not enough to cover food, home, and educational expenses. Education must be subsidized so that people who work hard and want to better themselves have a competitive chance to do so without being crushed by heavy student loans.
ReplyDeleteAs sad as this situation undoubtedly is, there's really not much that can be done about it. Every person has to do the best with the cards that are dealt to them if they want to succeed. Its true that some people don't have to work as hard to make a lot of money, but they are benefiting off the affluence of their parents and will not have the experience of having to struggle to get ahead. While it may not seem like a big plus, it does build character and makes one appreciate the little things in life. This makes it easier to live a comfortable life, as what may seem impoverished and lowly to the top 1%, may be perfectly agreeable to someone that had to work their way to were they stand. Always look at the bright side.
ReplyDeleteI think there are policy changes on a political side to help make school more affordable, after all studies show that when more students succeed a country succeed - look at Nigeria, the most prosperous young African nation. And while middle class families are squeezing by, I think it will be less and less each year of students able to attend college, even with the financial aid given (I myself nearly dropped out due to costs). But the solution isn't the government helping students pay more, that would only be treating the symptoms, not the problem. The problem is colleges and universities being run like businesses and for profit institutions. The gratuitous expenditures on football programs are testament to the excesses of the American college system. If we work to undo the ridiculous business centric model we've established, there is hope for the middle class student yet. But if we just have the government pay all of our student debt like Sanders suggested, we'd just annually accrue more debt than is possible to pay back.
ReplyDeleteI'm the transfer student who came from one fancy private school to another. Unfortunately, I have a mountain of debt piling up from both.
ReplyDeleteI worry often if the fact that I've never "paid my dues" with an unpaid internship will hold me back from getting a high-paying job (you know, the kind that will help me pay off all this debt) after graduation. I think a potential solution is creating restrictions on what qualifies as an "internship" and forcing companies to start actually paying for the labor they get from students. The work I do at the paid internship I was able to find is a lot more difficult and rewarding than the work I used to do as a delivery driver, but the money I made in tips makes me want to go back to delivery so that I can afford rent more comfortably. Paying people for the work that they do at an internship could begin to even the playing field, even if they only offer minimum wage.
I was the smart kid coming from a low socio-economic background. In many ways I'm very privileged. While I still often struggle to pay for the estimated remaining cost of my semester (thank God for monthly payments), I'm graduating with less debt than my middle-class peers. But this piece resonates with me because whenever I go home and sleep on the living room couch (I don't have my own room), I'm constantly reminded of the pressure to make my post-USC life worth the debt I'm going into, even though it's not as bad as it could have been.
ReplyDeleteMy old school district didn't give me nearly as much opportunities as many of my peers, and I definitely felt it in my first few years at USC. Even now I'm doing my best to manage school and work, pay for school, search for paid internships (because I can't afford to take unpaid) and try to financially help my family. In terms of career development, it has often taken a hit because of what I have going on at home and because I'm trying to work enough hours to pay for the semester. After all the stress I've felt during my time here, it just might kill me that what I've done here isn't enough for me to live a comfortable life after USC.
Tl;dr, the cost of college generally screws us all, unless we've had benefactors who paid for all of it.
I think this is a very important issue you are highlighting here in your post. I have been lucky myself that my parents are able to pay for a USC education but I have many friends who are going to be graduating with mounds of debt. One of my best friends in fact has to work two jobs in order to keep up with paying for USC. This really makes it hard to do the unpaid internships that are needed for some jobs in the future. These full-time jobs that want to see the unpaid internships are the ones that would pay enough to help pay off college debt. Basically, as we all know this exorbitant cost of college needs to be fixed somehow, and needs to be fixed soon.
ReplyDeleteLike a lot of the other comments mention here, it's difficult to come up with a solution to this tough problem. At the end of the day, financial aid can only do so much to help ease the burden of school for some. The only thing I can suggest is pointing a finger at one perk of affluence, and that is unpaid internships. I'm not sure how so many employers that went through college are able to consciously put out a job with the only salary being experience. In this era of unaffordable education and widespread lack of jobs, it's cruel and unusual to take advantage of students' desperation to get ahead. More importantly, like you mentioned, it further increases the gap between those fortunate enough to be able to forgo a wage and those that are simply trying to get by.
ReplyDeleteAs angering and frustrating as this is, it is a perpetual situation. Socioeconomic divides and the struggles for those who can't drop $275 on one undergarment, have always existed and will continue to exist. And not just in elite private educational institutions, but later on in life whether it be in the form of access to business opportunities, ability to take out a loan, etc. The solution needs to be to stop accepting this as the norm, but that is unfortunately ways away. I don’t see the USC “Daddy paid for my acceptance” students going away anytime soon, and so there needs to be a shift in university policy for a. the type of students accepted and b. the resources available to make it an even playing field.
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