poor students struggle as class plays a greater role in success

[sakuraberries]

GALVESTON, Tex. - Angelica Gonzales marched through high school in Goth armor - black boots, chains and cargo pants - but undermined her pose of alienation with a place on the honor roll. She nicknamed herself after a metal band and vowed to become the first in her family to earn a college degree.

“I don’t want to work at Walmart” like her mother,

Comments

[britneyspears]

i skimmed this the other day, so terrible
that entire emory situation is just a disaster

[maenads_dance]

And not at all surprising to me. The FAFSA/CSS profile was terrifying and confusing the first time I encountered it, and that was with my parents actively helping me fill it out, going through their past tax records with me, etc. If you don't have good contact with a parent... it's so difficult. I have a friend whose parents are less than amicably divorced, and she has had repeated major financial aid difficulties because of the impossibility of getting both parents' tax records.

[ennifer_jay]

My senior year of high school I was 17, so when I filed the FAFSA as independent (because I'm an orphan), there was no challenge. In my first year of college, I was 18 when I filed the FAFSA, once again as an independent. My independent status got revoked, since I was now above 18 and no longer technically an ~orphan~, and I had to re-prove it. My mom's dead, and I hadn't had contact with my dad for years by this point. The last contact I had with him was signing a document constructed by my aunt (who was a paralegal) that granted his mother/my grandmother custody of me, and an affadavit declaring that my grandmother was my primary caretaker. The "custody battle," for lack of a better word (because there was no real battle?), all took place out of court and with no real legal involvement

[belleweather]

Oh my God. I went from Independent to potentially dependent my sophomore year too, due to one of my parents dying. The financial aid office at my small liberal arts school was like "Wait, you were independent last year, but not this year, what gives?" and I explained the situation to them and they were like "Oh, no. You're independent this year too. Here, we'll just fix it." I'm so, so sorry you had to go through that pain in the ass to get your situation worked out. :(

[maenads_dance]

Good article. Hard article to read

[hinoema]

This is now essentially impossible except at community colleges, and community college education has all sorts of drawbacks (as mentioned above).

Like what? I didn't see any mention of the drawbacks of community college in the article.

[maenads_dance]

Among the perils that low-income students face is “under-matching,” choosing a close or familiar school instead of the best they can attend.

“The more selective the institution is, the more likely kids are to graduate,” said Mr. Chingos, the Brookings researcher. “There are higher expectations, more resources and more stigma to dropping out.”

Bianca was under-matched. She was living at home, dating her high-school boyfriend and taking classes at Galveston College. A semester on the honor roll only kept her from sensing the drift away from her plan to transfer to a four-year school.

Read more at ONTD Political: http://ontd-political.livejournal.com/10305734.html#comments#comments#ixzz2G42GroNx

A snippet. There is definitely good teaching for a great price to be found at community college, but also a lot of lousy teaching, and community colleges just don't have the resources to invest in student retention long-term.

[hinoema]

I'd call that more 'a potential disadvantage' than 'all sorts of drawbacks', but anyway... it depends on the community college. Portland CC has a great transfer program, including simultaneous co-enrollment with pretty much all of the state (and some out of state) colleges. The classes are also great quality and my teachers have mostly been excellent, which is why I'm studying there virtually and not in my native state of Arizona.

From what I see, under-matching isn't an inherent flaw of all community colleges; it's the fault of poor community colleges (like Pima in Arizona).

A semester on the honor roll only kept her from sensing the drift away from her plan to transfer to a four-year school.That sounds like a personal issue. My broke self has been on the honor roll from the beginning, and I haven't drifted away from my plans to continue to a University. I'm co-enrolled at PSU already, in fact

[foureyedgirl]

My former anthro prof/mentor from comm college posted this on fbook, and it really hit home for me. As a Mexican woman, with no real life skills passed on to my parents it's a wonder I finished my associate. I want to get my bachelors but the daunting cost keeps me from pursuing it even though I want to. I'm 27, still live at home, broke and work a crappy seasonal job at Target, I know all too well the feeling of being trapped.

[nesmith]

And the worst part is that a degree is touted as some kind of magic automatic job-getter with no explanation of how much connections and networking and degree relevance factor into being able to get into a field or career. I have a master's degree in English, which sounds really impressive on paper, but because I didn't have any help with networking, no research offers, or any resources aside from "here look through these books," I work in an office making less than people who barely graduated high school. It's a rigged game set up for people who have all the cards in their pockets before they start.

[maladaptive]

And the worst part is that a degree is touted as some kind of magic automatic job-getter with no explanation of how much connections and networking and degree relevance factor into being able to get into a field or career.This exactly. I was reading an article (Hipsters on Food Stamps maybe?) where there was a conversation about the uselessness of humanities/liberal arts degrees, and one comment pointed out that lib arts degrees are and can be useful-- the problem is that, unlike many STEM programs and medical students, lib arts students get absolutely zero help in learning how to find jobs. Not just networking but even knowing what kind of jobs exist. My school had a lot of focus on grad school. I got an anthropology BA which requires a PhD, but it absolutely fascinates people that I talk to and gets me a foot in the door in other fields

[nesmith]

Exactly. When I tell people that I have an MA in English they always say "Oh, do you want to teach?" Because for most people that's the only thing you can do with an English degree; I had to teach myself over the years how to articulate how valuable an English degree can be in many fields, but convincing corporate business types of that is a different matter all together.

[coyotesuspect]

This is a good article, though very hard to read. There's something about it that's bugging me, and I think I'm too tired to put my finger on it. But it seems like, in its focus on the girls' stories, it fails to take a wider, more systematic view of why so many low-income students fail to get into colleges (and have such a hard time achieving once there.) When it does take the long view, its argument seems to be "not enough father figures" (which is kind of gross imo) and "the rich getting richer" - which I feel is a large part of the issue, but doesn't go far enough as an explanation and needs to be explained in and of itself. idk I think I'll probably come back to this article to think it through more

[the_physicist]

I agree with you on the article failing to talk about the picture in a broader view. I think the author did a great job on getting their stories across, but they gave themselves away with this line early on:

The growing role of class in academic success has taken experts by surprise since it follows decades of equal opportunity efforts and counters racial trends, where differences have narrowed. It adds to fears over recent evidence suggesting that low-income Americans have lower chances of upward mobility than counterparts in Canada and Western Europe.No, not really a shock to the actual experts... only to clueless politicians and policy makers who have ignored those actually looking at the college intake, graduation and earnings data etc

[coyotesuspect]

Thanks for the link! I'll check it out.

And that's a great point about good universities leading to increased income disparity. I can definitely see the process at work in my own college experience. I go to a university that's considered one of the best in the country and, despite majoring in religious studies of all things, I already have a job secured for after graduation. And a large part of that is the fact my university has the institutional renown and financial resources to be able to secure great paid summer internships for a lot of its students, so I was able to spend my summers getting work experience and doing networking. Students who go to schools without that advantage are going to suffer when it comes to the job market later.

And then even getting into a great university like mine is largely a matter of built-in class advantages. I'm something of an anomaly among my friends in that I didn't go to one of Newsweek's Best High Schools in America (I'm serious about this; we took an informal poll once). And they all had

[the_physicist]

It's different in the UK but the elite unis here are dominated by upper and middle class students too. Barriers are everywhere. I don't know if it had gotten worse here in the UK, but I suspect it may have, just as in the US. You cannot buy your way into a university place here, but that doesn't mean there aren't a million small reasons (and larger ones) that add up to make things unequal.

[a_phoenixdragon]

I think class has always played a higher role in any situation - schooling and job markets notwithstanding. I think it is more visible now, as more jobs demand schooling of all types to even GET a job (great, go into debt before you can even get a wage! Arrghhh!) It's terrible that a lot of talented, fantastic people get passed over because they 'don't fit' *rolls eyes* the jobs/education they apply for which means: they aren't white, wealthy, have a private education, etc, etc.

In a world that is struggling for equality, these injustices are glaring. Hopefully it means something will be done about it - and sooner rather than later. *Crosses fingers*

[the_physicist]

Things are getting worse, even if class has always played a role. here is an article with graphs to show that and explain why:

http://www.reuters.com/subjects/income-inequality/massachusetts?

[a_phoenixdragon]

Thank you, I'll take a look.

We're seeing it here in the job market. Everything is skewed to the employer and workers rights are a joke. I know colleges aren't much better (though I have no personal experience in that arena), because friends of mine who are in college are struggling with some of the same issues you'll find in the job market.

It's almost as if colleges/employers don't really care anymore if they are seen as grasping, underhanded and ruthless. Who's going to stop them? It's terrible. At a time when everyone could use a little more equality and mercy, too.

Sorry, sorry - thank you for the graphs. And may you have a lovely holiday (or wonderful Tuesday if you do not celebrate).

[the_physicist]

Yes, universities are not worrying about being seen as businesses now. :-/

and thank you! Same to you!