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

[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.

Angelica's story was really hard to read for me. There have been times while at college when I've hit that low point and just haven't been able to respond to people trying to help me. I think even well-meaning and sympathetic people don't realize that one of the worst parts of depression is that inability to respond. (And I do think part of that is just the stigma which mental illness has; if you say, yes I have a problem then you're, you know, admitting there's something wrong with you.)

Also, financial aid forms are really fucking complicated. I'm a senior, and even applying for aid this time (my third time doing it and with my dad's help every time), stuff still got fucked up and I didn't actually get my aid decision until right before the start of school. It would be great if colleges and high schools could do more to help students with the forms.

[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.

For example, the state with the best unis in the US, massachusetts, in that state the income disparity between rich and poor has had the biggest increase. The good unis have caused that growth in income disparity.

I read an article that also had faults in it, but did highlight the role of HE in the US in increasing income disparity clearly. I'll go look for it.

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

[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 resources - access to personal college counselors, coming from high schools with quite a bit of renown, SAT prep, access to great extracurricular activities, admission application padding summer activities etc, etc - which all help a lot when it comes to being admitted to a really prestigious college. Even just knowing things like when to take the SAT is something of an advantage; I had a friend ask when she should take the SAT in spring of our senior year of high school, after college apps were already due. There was no one at our high school explaining when to take what tests or how to apply to college.

There is, quite simply, an almost insurmountable accumulation of resources at every level of education for those who are well-off.

Sorry this is so long! I'm sort of writing to think things through.

[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.

[kitschaster]

Y'know, I did not know I had this same problem with the article until reading your post. I read through all of their stories, and felt all of that, but didn't know how to describe it. But yeah, especially with the depression and stress. Though I knew a girl who told the school she was having issues coping with her disorder (anorexia), and they did not make her pay for a whole year. I don't think many colleges would ever do that, though.

[coyotesuspect]

That's great her college did that for her, but yeah, I doubt it's something a lot of other colleges would do. ):

[yndigot]

My GPA tanked because I suffered from such severe anxiety disorder that I barely went to class one semester and was also unable to overcome my anxiety enough to go to talk to someone about dropping those classes or ... whatever possible action might have saved my semester from becoming a giant black spot. One teacher reached out to me, worked with me, and I was able to pass her class. I failed everything else.

The next semester, I'd managed to finally get some help. I applied to retroactively have the semester stricken from my record. I was told that because I passed that one class "it must not have been that bad".

I went to a massive school. I'm not sure how good they are at reaching out to low income students (I paid mostly with loans that will take forever to pay off and money my parents scraped up) but there are so many students that are vulnerable for one reason or another, and my experience with big schools (or my big school in particular) is that no one is going to give any help you don't aggressively pursue, and that ignores the fact that a) it can be incredibly difficult to ask for help (embarrassing or, in cases like mine, almost physically impossible) and b) people don't always know where to go for help. In fact, the most vulnerable are often least likely to be aware of any help that's out there or who to ask in order to get access.

[coyotesuspect]

I applied to retroactively have the semester stricken from my record. I was told that because I passed that one class "it must not have been that bad".

Ugh. That's terrible. I'm so sorry. ):

a) it can be incredibly difficult to ask for help (embarrassing or, in cases like mine, almost physically impossible) and b) people don't always know where to go for help. In fact, the most vulnerable are often least likely to be aware of any help that's out there or who to ask in order to get access.

This, exactly. This is perfectly put. And I wish the article had touched upon this more; it does seem like mental health was an issue for these girls, and not having the ability to get help or the knowledge of how to is also an important part of the conversation (especially as it intersects with class and race).