What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school? (2015)

Re:What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school? (2015) by mustacheemperor on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @10:37AM (#13482206)

Aren't students with wealthy families literally attending school thanks to the contributions of others? I say this as someone fortunate enough to have parents who saved their whole life to pay my tuition - I understand I am fortunate for that, I didn't literally earn that money in any way before attending school and performing well to justify it being spent, and I still can't argue that in any way is the same as literally working for that money. On the other hand I knew classmates who basically worked like slaves for four years at terrible, thankless jobs, struggling to pay rent in an area full of luxury housing targeted at the wealthy, just trying to pay their tuition after loans and aid. This at a school where Greek house membership fees run into the thousands, literally engineering a class divide in the student social life.

I'd say "constantly reminding" someone and their surrounding peers of the fact that they are of lower stature economically is a recipe to divide the student base and breed resentment. You would be less likely to feel resentment standing in a separate line from most of your peers, looking at a bunch of students with outfits worth more than a month's rent, singled out for getting "handouts" from your school? Don't grad students typically earn a stipend working a job anyway? I don't see that as any more "living on the largess of others" than going to school on your family's money.

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Re:What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school? (2015) by yummyfajitas on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @11:23AM (#13482711)

Aren't students with wealthy families literally attending school thanks to the contributions of others?

It would be ungrateful and counterproductive if such students felt resentment towards their parents, no?

Don't grad students typically earn a stipend working a job anyway?

I earn a salary by working a job which aims to make customers happy (same as when I was in grad school on a stipend). However, I don't feel resentment toward those customers - that would be counterproductive and harmful.

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Re:What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school? (2015) by mustacheemperor on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @12:05PM (#13483225)

I don't remotely follow the logic you're applying here. I did not suggest anywhere that these students feel resentment to their sources of financial support, but rather that highlighting class divisions in a university will breed resentful attitudes among students towards each other. Do poor students somehow owe something to wealthier ones just for attending the same school? Please describe in clear terms exactly what kind of logic you're applying here because to me it mostly seems like something an undergrad with a swiss watch would be boistering about in the dining hall.

Did you somehow get the impression I think grad students should be resentful towards the university because of their stipends? I think most of them are grateful - I meant to convey that it's disingenuous to think of a grad student's stipend as some kind of handout, I really can't understand how you interpreted that as you did.

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Re:What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school? (2015) by yummyfajitas on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @01:58PM (#13484679)

Wealthy students (or their parents) pay full price, supporting the university and all it's operations. Many of them pay more than full price via donations and such. One of the things they are paying for is support/scholarships/etc for the poorer students.

I don't think a grad student's stipend is a handout, just as I don't think my salary is. Nevertheless, grad students should be grateful to the undergrads/taxpayers who are supporting them, and I should be grateful to my employer's customers (I am).

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