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Challenging Our Elite Schools to Do Better

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Postsecondary Education for First-Generation and Low-Income Students in the Ivy League

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Abstract

The stories of low-income students who didn’t make it have not been told here. The students I interviewed graduated successfully from an elite college and continued on paths similar to those of their upper-middle-class peers. On the surface, these students lived up to the tacit assumption that students smart enough to get in are smart enough to figure out how to do well; just drop them off at the base of a mountain without a map or blazes and expect them to arrive at the summit.

Despite improvements such as financial aid initiatives, and opportunities to identify with similar peers, low-income students still face challenges with institutional structures and policies, social and academic dialogue, and academic support.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Foster, “What Is It Like to Be Poor at an Ivy League School?”

  2. 2.

    In 2009, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers college endowments dropped 18.7 percent. Private colleges were hit hardest. Annalyn Censky, “No Loans! Major Colleges Pledge Aid without Debt,” CNNMoney, April 9, 2010, http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/09/pf/college/no-loan_financial_aid/index.htm.

  3. 3.

    Dartmouth College, “A Message to the Dartmouth Community from President Jim Yong Kim ,” news release, February 8, 2010, http://www.dartmouth.edu/~president/announcements/2010-0208.html (site discontinued).

  4. 4.

    Janet Frankston Lorin, “Williams College Ends No-Loan Financial Aid Policy,” Bloomberg Businessweek, February 1, 2010, http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-01/williams-college-ends-no-loan-policy-for-student-financial-aid.html (site discontinued).

  5. 5.

    Ibid., Ben Gose, “Diversity Takes a Hit During Tough Times: Some Campuses Try to Protect Gains, but Others Scale Back Their Efforts,” Chronicle of Higher Education, October 11, 2009, http://chronicle.com/article/Diversity-Takes-a-Hit-During/48732; Jonathan D. Glater, “College in Need Closes a Door to Needy Students.” New York Times, June 9, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/business/economy/10reed.html?_r=0.

  6. 6.

    Awilda Rodriguez, “At Elite Colleges, No Room at the Dance for Low-Income Students,” Chronicle of Higher Education, September 25, 2013, http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2013/09/25/at-elite-colleges-no-room-at-the-dance-for-low-income-students/.

  7. 7.

    Tina Rosenberg, “How Colleges Can Again Be Levelers of Society,” New York Times, May 3, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/03/opinion/how-colleges-can-again-be-levelers-of-society.html?_r=0.

  8. 8.

    Associated Press, “11 More Private Colleges Join Say Yes Tuition Pack,” The Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2013, http://online.wsj.com/article/AP4ad19b07b02545e49a8aeafcb7b52e03.html (site discontinued).

  9. 9.

    Nick Anderson, “Selective Colleges Pledge to Recruit More Low-Income Students,” Washington Post, December 13, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/12/13/selective-colleges-pledge-to-recruit-more-low-income-students/?utm_term=.c8d511309ae4.

  10. 10.

    Ibid.

  11. 11.

    Jon Marcus, “Confusing Financial Aid Letters Leave Students, Parents Adrift,” NPR Ed, May 7, 2015, http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/05/07/401982616/confusing-financial-aid-letters-leave-students-parents-adrift.

  12. 12.

    Ibid.

  13. 13.

    Adam Joseph Argaylis Lips, “A Typology of Institutional Loan Replacement Grant Initiative for Low-and Moderate-Income Students,” The Review of Higher Education 34, no. 4 (2011): 611–655. doi:https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2011.0026. Nick Anderson, “For the Poor in the Ivy League, a Full Ride Isn’t Always What They Imagined,” Washington Post, May 16, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/for-the-poor-in-the-ivy-league-a-full-ride-isnt-always-what-they-imagined/2016/05/16/5f89972a-114d-11e6-81b4-581a5c4c42df_story.html.

  14. 14.

    Adam Joseph Argaylis Lips, “A Typology of Institutional Loan Replacement Grant Initiative for Low-and Moderate-Income Students.”

  15. 15.

    Ibid.

  16. 16.

    Sara Goldrick- Rab and Nancy Kendall, “The Real Price of College: College Completion Series, Part Two,” The Century Foundation, March 3, 2016, https://tcf.org/content/report/the-real-price-of-college/.

  17. 17.

    Marcus, “Confusing Financial Aid Letters Leave Students, Parents Adrift.”

  18. 18.

    Ibid.

  19. 19.

    Jon Boeckenstedt, “New Fafsa Changes Will Bring Unintended Consequences for Colleges,” Chronicle of Higher Education, September 16, 2015, http://chronicle.com/article/New-Fafsa-Changes-Will-Bring-/233137/.

  20. 20.

    Ibid.

  21. 21.

    Camille Z. Charles et al., Taming the River: Negotiating the Academic, Financial, and Social Currents in Selective Colleges and Universities (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009).

  22. 22.

    Foster, “What Is It Like to Be Poor at an Ivy League School?”

  23. 23.

    Sara G oldrick-Rab and Nancy Kendall, “The Real Price of College: College Completion Series, Part Two.”

  24. 24.

    Beckie Supiano, “5 Financial-Aid Tips for After the Freshman Year Begins,” Chronicle of Higher Education, October 25, 2009, http://chronicle.com/article/5-financial-Aid-tips-for-after/48927.

  25. 25.

    America’s Promise Alliance, Improving the Financial Aid System to Increase College Completion, accessed June 10, 2013, http://www.americaspromise.org/news/new-report-improving-financial-aid-system-increase-college-completion.

  26. 26.

    Marcus, “Confusing Financial Aid Letters Leave Students, Parents Adrift.”

  27. 27.

    Charles et al., Taming the River: Negotiating the Academic, Financial, and Social Currents in Selective Colleges and Universities.

  28. 28.

    Edward B. Fiske, “The Carolina Covenant,” in Rewarding Strivers: Helping Low-Income Students Succeed in College, ed. Richard D . Kahlenberg (New York: The Century Foundation, 2010), 33.

  29. 29.

    Dartmouth College, “First Year Student Enrichment Program,” accessed January 1, 2016, https://www.dartmouth.edu/~fysep/.

  30. 30.

    Kate Farley, “FYSEP to Ease College Transition,” The Dartmouth, April 28, 2009,http://thedartmouth.com/2009/04/28/fysep-to-ease-college-transition/.

  31. 31.

    Ibid.

  32. 32.

    Beth McM urtrie, “Georgetown U. Builds a Student Support System to Substitute for Privilege,” Chronicle of Higher Education, May 27, 2014, http://chronicle.com/article/Georgetown-U-Builds-a/146713/.

  33. 33.

    Ibid.

  34. 34.

    Hertog and Krupp, “First.”

  35. 35.

    George D. Kuh, “How to Help Students Achieve,” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 15, 2007, http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i41/41b01201.htm.

  36. 36.

    Anderson, “For the Poor in the Ivy League, a Full Ride Isn’t Always What They Imagined.”

  37. 37.

    Wheelock Books , “Wheelock Books Information,” accessed September 17, 2015, http://wheelockbooks.com/dartmouthinfo.html.

  38. 38.

    Ibid.

  39. 39.

    Office of Pl uralism and Leadership, e-mail to the author, November 19, 2008, students were anonymously asked, “How does your socioeconomic class impact your academic life?”

  40. 40.

    Ibid.

  41. 41.

    Anderson, “For the Poor in the Ivy League, a Full Ride Isn’t Always What They Imagined.”

  42. 42.

    Ibid.

  43. 43.

    Joyce Lee, “Dartmouth Faces Socioeconomic Divides within Student Body,” The Dartmouth, February 10, 2017, 4.

  44. 44.

    Foster, “What Is It Like to Be Poor at an Ivy League School?”

  45. 45.

    Ibid.

  46. 46.

    Vimal Patel, “Washington U. Is Fixing Its Economic Diversity Problem. Its Next Challenge Is Parity,” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 29, 2016, http://chronicle.com/article/Wahsington-U-Is-Fixing-Its/236945.

  47. 47.

    Nevarez, “First-Generation College Students Form ‘IvyG’ to Support, Connect.”

  48. 48.

    Patel, “Washington U. Is Fixing Its Economic Diversity Problem. Its Next Challenge Is Parity.”

  49. 49.

    Ibid.

  50. 50.

    Dartmouth College, “Off-Campus Programs: Language Study Abroad (LSA) and Foreign Study Programs (FSP),” accessed September 26, 2015, http://admissions.dartmouth.edu/financial-aid/how-aid-works/d-plan-aid/study-abroad.

  51. 51.

    Foster, “What Is It Like to Be Poor at an Ivy League School?”

  52. 52.

    Elizabeth A. Armstrong and Laura T. Hamilton, Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013).

  53. 53.

    Ibid., 77.

  54. 54.

    Nir, “Are Final Clubs Too Exclusive for Harvard?”

  55. 55.

    Beth McM urtrie, “Do Fraternities Have a Place on the Modern Campus?,” Chronicle of Higher Education, August 3, 2015, http://chronicle.com/article/Do-Fraternities-Have-a-Place/232087/.

  56. 56.

    Ibid.

  57. 57.

    Ibid.

  58. 58.

    Rive ra, “Ivies, Extracurriculars, and Exclusion: Elite Employers’ Use of Educational Credentials,” 81.

  59. 59.

    Ibid.

  60. 60.

    Ibid., 82.

  61. 61.

    Ibid.

  62. 62.

    Ibid.

  63. 63.

    Ibid.

  64. 64.

    Ibid.

  65. 65.

    Ramponi, “Hierarchies: Examining Class at Dartmouth.”

  66. 66.

    Anthony P. Carnev ale and Ban Cheah, Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings (Washington: Georgetown Public Policy Institute, 2013), accessed January 20, 3014, www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/HardTimes (site discontinued).

  67. 67.

    Ibid.

  68. 68.

    Ibid.

  69. 69.

    Dartmouth College. “Majors to Careers ,” accessed December 12, 2009, http://www.dartmouth.edu/~csrc/students/majors/index.html.

  70. 70.

    Frank Bruni, “How and Why You Diversify Colleges,” New York Times, May 14, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/opinion/sunday/how-and-why-you-diversify-colleges.html?hpw&rref=sunday-review&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well.

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  1. School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA

    Kerry H. Landers

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Landers, K.H. (2018). Challenging Our Elite Schools to Do Better. In: Postsecondary Education for First-Generation and Low-Income Students in the Ivy League. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63456-2_14

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