What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school? • Hacker News Board

Re: What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school?

#51

Post by dsp1234 » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 9:31 PM UTC

spiritplumber wrote: post #30

dsp1234 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too also grew up poor, but find myself in a position where I have a very nice job, and I also have a hard time articulating to other's how warped I feel about money/status/etc. The best I've ever found is John Cheese's Cracked articles on the topic which I felt were almost like he was writing from inside of my head. http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-devel... http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-st…

"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boot…

Obviously a side note, but I did a test on a topic similar to this. My SO convinced me to try out a custom shoe place (highly reviewed, and recommended) on the theory that if I was only going to buy one pair of shoes, that I should at least have a quality pair to wear around.

The results from that (sole) experiment were that the shoes lasted longer but not so much so that they beat out multiple pairs of cheaper shoes on price. The quality shoes lasted about 4 years, and I buy a pair of sneakers about every 1.5 years. However, the quality shoes were at about a 10x markup from the sneakers. So I'd need those quality shoes to last 15 years or so.

So for my money, it sounds like great fiction, but not great reality.

Re: What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school?

#52

Post by letitgo12345 » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 9:31 PM UTC

Hmm I went to an Ivy League school.

Maybe it was the company I hung out with but there was never really any talk of how rich anyone's background was (in fact it was kind of taboo) -- the same way no one ever talked about what their SAT scores were. It seemed petty.

There were several well off kids in my social circle (though not mega rich or anything) but there wasn't really any flaunting of wealth. In fact, many of the well off people I knew tried to save more money than some less well off people! There were also some poor kids around who people knew about but they were never really looked down upon.

Re: What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school?

#53

Post by jheriko » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 9:31 PM UTC

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #49

jheriko wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its hard to take the article very seriously from the title, but it does make for a slightly cringeworthy read. As someone from a very poor background (actual poor - starving in africa poor, not US overprivileged 'I can eat for free out of bins' poor, but this is all relative...) I can sympathise somewhat too. I agree with the point made here in this comment- personally, I never felt like I had the kind of disadvantag…

> A very rich man once said to me that if you act like a rich person eventually you would find yourself to be rich... I think there is an element of truth in that. Unfortunately, there is also truth in the idea that if you act like you're rich, you end up poor, because you wind up spending all you have (probably plus some).

true. its one to take carefully with consideration....

have you met many rich people who spend like there is no tomorrow? its about acting like a /rich person/ not as if you have a limitless supply of money and are actually rich. :)

Re: What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school?

#54

Post by jacquesm » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 9:33 PM UTC

dsp1234 wrote: post #20

stegosaurus wrote: post #9

I attended an elite UK university having had a poor upbringing. This article reads painfully to me. I don't have the words to describe why, but I can try. The closest I can come is to say that this idea of inclusiveness is terminally broken. It's a sort of bandage over a huge chasm of differences. For a poor person to become wealthy requires them to discard their baggage. Change the accent, the clothes, the pop cultu…

I too also grew up poor, but find myself in a position where I have a very nice job, and I also have a hard time articulating to other's how warped I feel about money/status/etc. The best I've ever found is John Cheese's Cracked articles on the topic which I felt were almost like he was writing from inside of my head. http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-devel... http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-st…

I only own two pairs of shoes, my construction boots and a pair of representable shoes for visiting customers. I'll let you guess which ones I'm more comfortable in ;)

Nothing to be ashamed of, think about it this way: what you don't have you don't need to maintain or carry with you, stuff is vastly over-rated, having more doesn't equate automatically to feeling better.

Re: What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school?

#55

Post by kelukelugames » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 9:33 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #40

kelukelugames wrote: post #2

I'm happy this is here. Anytime affirmative action, race issues, etc is discussed, someone will always say "it's a class issue! What about poor white people?" Well, here's an article about that.

[deleted]

Don't need to be aggressive.

I think everyone has their struggles, whether it be gender, race, or class based. I just like learning from other people's perspectives.

Re: What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school?

#56

Post by jacquesm » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 9:34 PM UTC

dsp1234 wrote: post #51

spiritplumber wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boot…

Obviously a side note, but I did a test on a topic similar to this. My SO convinced me to try out a custom shoe place (highly reviewed, and recommended) on the theory that if I was only going to buy one pair of shoes, that I should at least have a quality pair to wear around. The results from that (sole) experiment were that the shoes lasted longer but not so much so that they beat out multiple pairs of cheaper shoes…

That's why most people don't take their economic advice from works of fiction.

Re: What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school?

#57

Post by cperciva » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 9:35 PM UTC

This very much reminds me of my time in Oxford. I was there on a Commonwealth scholarship (referred to by many at the time as "Rhodes light") which paid for my tuition plus about £550/month of living expenses; this was enough to keep me alive, but it certainly wasn't generous.

My friends were very obviously split into two groups -- poorer students from state schools who were first-generation Oxbridge attendees, and rich students from public (UK) or private (US) schools whose parents had been at Oxbridge or Ivy universities. Academically, I fit in well with the wealthier crowd -- my parents both have Oxford degrees and doctorates, and I was there on an academic scholarship -- but financially I was far closer to the first-generation students. On one memorable occasion I was invited to join a group for a weekend skiing in the Alps, and declined when I realized that it would cost me more than my rent for the month; and while all of my American friends flew home between terms (and often for long weekends in the middle of term), I stayed in Oxford over Christmas and Easter because the rent was cheaper than even the lowest-price plane tickets.

But I can't fault Oxford for any of this: Indeed, the reason these socioeconomic strata were so obvious is precisely because they're doing a good job of bringing in students from a wide range of backgrounds. I never saw the University of my College doing anything which stigmatized or isolated students based on their background; the stratification was entirely due to the differences students brought to the university in how they saw the world and their places in it.

Re: What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school?

#58

Post by kelukelugames » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 9:36 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #31

I don't think this is limited to schools. All through life you will find that there are people with more, or fewer, resources than you have and interactions may be adversely affected by that. The example of going out to dinner and then catching a movie is a good one. In a mid to large sized metropolitan area that is an expenditure of $40 - $100 (depending) and that can represent anywhere from .1% to 10% of a person's…

My boss's boss's boss once tried to socialize with me by asking what kind of boat I owned.

Re: What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school?

#59

Post by georgefrick » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 9:38 PM UTC

Crito wrote: post #32

I am curious whether anybody else has experienced this in professional settings. I make as much money as most of my peers at work, but fairly regularly I am made aware of the fact that my upbringing was less affluent than many of theirs. They have stories about exotic vacations they went on with their families, while my stories are about manual labor on farms. On some occasions somebody has made a crack at the expens…

I struggle with this all the time, even with my wife. Spring break? You mean catch up on math / work extra hours week? Hey, I'm finally going to next month! Oh, you've been there regularly since you were a kid? Then I suppose it would be boring. Oh, did I pronounce another word funny? Sorry, I only ever learned it from reading, nobody ever said it. But you can't say that shit out loud; you have to just grin and bear the embarrassment. I've learned to never ever bring up things like collecting cans/scrapping/etc.

Re: What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school?

#60

Post by cperciva » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 9:39 PM UTC

lordnacho wrote: post #10

I would caution against too much class consciousness. My parents came to the west in a boat, much like the ones that are sinking every day in the med. They scraped together a living and tuition fees running Chinese food joints. When I arrived in Oxford, I did realise there were some interesting characters around. One guy with a posh accent stuck waved his chequebook outside his room during a tuition fee demonstration…

When I arrived in Oxford, I did realise there were some interesting characters around. One guy with a posh accent stuck waved his chequebook outside his room during a tuition fee demonstration, offering to pay for everyone's tuition if he could just be allowed some peace. There are dudes walking the street in top hats. There are kids with sports cars.

When were you in Oxford? In my day I never saw any top hats, barring the occasional actor; and even the richest kids didn't have cars, because (a) there was nowhere to park them, and (b) you could walk faster than you could drive anywhere.