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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Some of it is that kids from higher SES families have greater expectations of attending college. They have had opportunities to travel away from home without parents and are likely to be more comfortable with living away from home. There is also the real possibility that the older child in a lower SES family is balancing school and helping the family so they have an incentive to attend college closer to home to help watch siblings. They may be accepted at UVA and choose GMU because it is easier to help the family.

There are programs in place starting in ES in order to try and help lower income kids or first generation to college kids stay on track to be able to attend college and succeed when they go to college.  There is all sorts of data that show that it is a big jump for kids to make and that many struggle with getting to college and then staying in college.

I don't think that most of the people who have grown up understanding that college was the path they were expected to take understand how hard it is to get on that path if you don't come from a background where that is the norm. Or how overwhelming it is to go away to college and not have support at home who understands the demands at college. [/quote]

My brother and I were from a poor single mother home. My mother had addiction problems. We went to very good schools on athletic scholarship. Completely on our own financially and otherwise.  The challenge we faced wasn’t in going away to college or not having family understand the demands (our mother had no idea of our majors or studies). The primary challenge was in making the right choices given the considerable freedoms we enjoyed. Athletics may have helped, but we quickly on our own discovered we despite appearances were not talented enough for any drugs or alcohol. Too much threat to fragile immune systems under intense training. Plus the motivation not to look stupid academically in front of wealthy classmates was powerful. No social life though.

The next biggest challenge was in being a bit behind academically. Only one way to catch up and you have to work for it. My honors adviser flat out told me that catching up was a function of how much ego damage one could sustain. In an era of safe spaces, query how many students are given this message today?

I knew that university was going to change the trajectory of my life. Indeed that happened.

From a distance one could observe athletics was a great social program for low SES types like us. [b]You have to make it work for you as opposed to letting the system work you.[/b]

[/quote]

Or, the system could be fixed. [/quote]

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