Reply to America's Top Colleges Have a Rich-Kid Problem

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]3) Notwithstanding the above, if you look at the research by Avery and Hoxby, what's apparent is not that poor kids aren't well-qualified for admission to highly selective colleges and universities, but that they don't even apply. This is a significant and disturbing problem that universities, including my Ivy alma mater, are just beginning to grapple with.[/quote]
This is what I've seen in my experience. [/quote]

I went to a high school in a blue collar town. None of us applied to Ivy League schools. It didn't even occur to us that we were qualified for the Ivy League. I was a National Merit Scholar with a boatload of sports and clubs, all honors classes, a job, and very good ACT/SAT scores. There were two dozen other kids just as qualified at my high school . No one advising us had the slightest idea how to apply to an Ivy League school or why we should consider it. [/quote]

Yes, I agree. I grew up in a poor rural town and, despite getting a 1600 on the SAT, acing my AP exams (physics, chem, and calculus), and having a STEM major as a woman, no one -- my parents, my school counselors, my teachers -- even brought up the subject of applying to an elite college. It was just too out of the realm of their reality. I ended up getting a full scholarship to a great state school, but an elite school would have probably opened doors that are now forever closed to me. Not bitter -- but I will be a huge advocate for my DD when it comes time for college. I suspect part of the reason people in DC can be so rabid about this is that they have similar backgrounds to me and want better for their children.[/quote]

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