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Privileged Poor vs. Doubly Disadvantaged at Elite Schools

theamericanconservative.com

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Re: Privileged Poor vs. Doubly Disadvantaged at Elite Schools

#3
Probably we should just add class and/or socioeconomic status to the Title VII list and mandate that colleges add it in the form of affirmative action. We can talk around the problem & treat symptoms all we want but fundamentally the Ivy League's purpose is to take the children of the rich and give them the meritocratic legitimation that our society currently requires of its elites. Allowing a small amount of poor kids in is just a part of that meritocratic veneer. We should destroy the entire purpose and rebuild it w/ 20% of its students from the bottom 20%, 20% of its students from the next 20%, and only 1% of its students from the top 1%.

Re: Privileged Poor vs. Doubly Disadvantaged at Elite Schools

#4

I feel like a lot of this is navel gazing. Idk is the advantage of even a good school that much.

The advantage of a counselor-like figure telling you to just apply to a fancy college (i.e. that it is totally within reach) and the advantage of the instructor having the time to teach (instead of just herd the students around) is absolutely enormous from my observations (as both an academic and a K12 outreach volunteer).

Re: Privileged Poor vs. Doubly Disadvantaged at Elite Schools

#5

Probably we should just add class and/or socioeconomic status to the Title VII list and mandate that colleges add it in the form of affirmative action. We can talk around the problem & treat symptoms all we want but fundamentally the Ivy League's purpose is to take the children of the rich and give them the meritocratic legitimation that our society currently requires of its elites. Allowing a small amount of poor ki…

it's a private school, what possible law could be written to force that kind of criteria? Why stop at those levels? How about mandating equal representation of state populations too?

Re: Privileged Poor vs. Doubly Disadvantaged at Elite Schools

#7

Probably we should just add class and/or socioeconomic status to the Title VII list and mandate that colleges add it in the form of affirmative action. We can talk around the problem & treat symptoms all we want but fundamentally the Ivy League's purpose is to take the children of the rich and give them the meritocratic legitimation that our society currently requires of its elites. Allowing a small amount of poor ki…

As a partial defense of the Ivies, a substantial part of their admins are trying to do that, and there are signs of progress: admission at most of them is now "need-blind" and they have fantastic financial aid.

The much bigger issue is that a student with rich parents would have gone to a better school, and would have had more "opportunities to shine" as a teen, and would not have to had to worry about food/shelter/health. This does make such a kid more prepared for college. There are no easy solutions to that type of inequality (the rich kid that got in is actually smart and deserving). I like the solution you are proposing, but the two of us are probably somewhat extreme.

Re: Privileged Poor vs. Doubly Disadvantaged at Elite Schools

#8

Probably we should just add class and/or socioeconomic status to the Title VII list and mandate that colleges add it in the form of affirmative action. We can talk around the problem & treat symptoms all we want but fundamentally the Ivy League's purpose is to take the children of the rich and give them the meritocratic legitimation that our society currently requires of its elites. Allowing a small amount of poor ki…

it's a private school, what possible law could be written to force that kind of criteria? Why stop at those levels? How about mandating equal representation of state populations too?

Eligibility for federal aid, just like every national mandate for collegiate education?

Re: Privileged Poor vs. Doubly Disadvantaged at Elite Schools

#9

Probably we should just add class and/or socioeconomic status to the Title VII list and mandate that colleges add it in the form of affirmative action. We can talk around the problem & treat symptoms all we want but fundamentally the Ivy League's purpose is to take the children of the rich and give them the meritocratic legitimation that our society currently requires of its elites. Allowing a small amount of poor ki…

it's a private school, what possible law could be written to force that kind of criteria? Why stop at those levels? How about mandating equal representation of state populations too?

There are plenty of examples of affirmative action policies. Whether they are a good idea can be debated, but writing such a policy is certainly feasible.

Re: Privileged Poor vs. Doubly Disadvantaged at Elite Schools

#10

Probably we should just add class and/or socioeconomic status to the Title VII list and mandate that colleges add it in the form of affirmative action. We can talk around the problem & treat symptoms all we want but fundamentally the Ivy League's purpose is to take the children of the rich and give them the meritocratic legitimation that our society currently requires of its elites. Allowing a small amount of poor ki…

That would be extreme affirmative action, and would undermine myriad efficiencies built into the higher educational system.

Schools like Michigan would have some students who are totally illiterate with SAT scores hovering around 800, and some students who've already done upper-division math courses in high school. Intelligent people could no longer be grouped together to help drive each other, and schools like Harvard would need to double their course offerings to accommodate the new, extremely large range of academic capabilities they now have to admit.

My opinion: it's not college's job to make up for 18 years of unequal resources building people. The fact is, it takes a miracle for someone raised in a stereotypical inner city life to ever overcome the educational head start a wealthy prep schooler gets. And oftentimes those wealthy parents will put six figures of educational experiences into their kids every year. I'm just not sure where poor people could ever get that kind of assistance to close the gap. That's $5.6T a year. The government doesn't even have the ability to make that happen.

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