MIT graduate student says income inequality is actually about housing

Re:MIT graduate student says income inequality is actually a... by TTPrograms on Thursday November 19, 2015 @08:19PM (#10598956)

That's why those schools all require a copy of your parents' paystubs as part of their applications.

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Re:MIT graduate student says income inequality is actually a... by staunch on Thursday November 19, 2015 @08:32PM (#10599012)

"And while many of the wealthiest colleges offer need-based scholarships for their poorest students, they enroll a relatively small percentage of low-income students compared to their less wealthy peers. The 10 wealthiest private colleges hold cash and endowments that, combined, total nearly $180 billion. A median 16 percent of their 2012-13 enrollees received Pell Grants, a form of federal aid only available to low-income students, according to an analysis of federal data."

“We are spending the most money as a society educating the wealthiest people.” -- Ronald Ehrenberg, director of the Cornell University Higher Education Research Institute

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/21/rich-universi...

http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/28/pf/college/ivy-league-low-in...

https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/04/09/what-like-po...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2013/11/27/the-cha...

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/16/top-1-of-harvard-grads-richer...

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Re:MIT graduate student says income inequality is actually a... by TTPrograms on Thursday November 19, 2015 @08:42PM (#10599053)

You're making a tangential point about representation of various socioeconomic classes in admissions. This has more to do with intrinsic correlations in academic performance then biased admissions process.

"A median 16 percent of their 2012-13 enrollees received Pell Grants, a form of federal aid only available to low-income students, according to an analysis of federal data."

What's low-income? If you define low-income as the bottom 20% of income earnings, that would be very close to proportional representation. That's outstanding, given all the confounding factors connecting performance and income.

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Re:MIT graduate student says income inequality is actually a... by tuberry on Thursday November 19, 2015 @09:11PM (#10599163)

29% of incoming Harvard freshman (class of 2017) reported family incomes of more than $250,000 / year.

- http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/9/4/freshman-survey-a...

less than 2% of families earn more than $250,000 / year.

- http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/apr/10/bar...

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Re:MIT graduate student says income inequality is actually a... by TTPrograms on Thursday November 19, 2015 @09:42PM (#10599269)

Again, this is a tangential point about how upper socioeconomic classes can better prepare their children for college admissions. The obvious solution is to invest in the public education system, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon (in America anyway, due to it being within the purview of individual states).

The point I'm making is that inequality in colleges is due to better preparation by higher-earning families and not some conspiratorial old-boys club. The hypothetical "some poor person, who went to a shitty college, that's even smarter" the original commenter referred to would have had as fair a shot as any of their caliber to get into the top schools. It's the poor precocious 5 year old that doesn't get read to every night and falls behind because both parents are working late at minimum wage jobs that defines the difficulty of escaping poverty through education. Top schools get to the table wayyy too late to heap the blame on them.

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Re:MIT graduate student says income inequality is actually a... by gozo on Friday November 20, 2015 @02:35AM (#10600123)

So how do you explain the discrimination against Asian in elite university admissions?

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Re:MIT graduate student says income inequality is actually a... by tuberry on Thursday November 19, 2015 @08:25PM (#10598981)

To be fair, they require proof of income for financial aid, and your ability to pay for college is certainly a big factor. Most colleges (particularly the elite colleges) wouldn't want to enroll students who don't graduate.

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Re:MIT graduate student says income inequality is actually a... by TTPrograms on Thursday November 19, 2015 @08:28PM (#10598999)

https://www.edvisors.com/plan-for-college/college-admissions...

Including: Harvard MIT Stanford Princeton Columbia

etc.

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