nina15r

my family moved here 16 years ago
we made a living off of farming

I can afford schooling because of scholarships and financial aid

if you study hard you'll get to where you need to

Keshira

I agree that people should stop complaining. I immigrated to this country and my mother's income has never been above $55,000 (started at around $20,000). I additionally have the disadvantage of being in an over represented race, and I don't plan on taking any SAT prep besides buying some books. But I don't think it's a big deal.

Of course wealthy people start out with advantages. I don't think this is necessarily fair, but keep in mind that the US might be the country with THE MOST social mobility. The chances to climb the social ladder are everywhere. When you're wealthy and your children have those advantages you didn't, I don't think I'll hear you complaining

Tsenguun

I totally agree with momkaes. It is just more difficult if you are poor, but it is still feasible. Nothing is impossible.

I myself am Mongolian, and my family income is well below 10k. Every time I talked about getting an education in the US, I was always discouraged. People were telling me how hard it is to get into US colleges, and that how much it requires.

And there was no library with SAT books, though the libraries had a lot of TOEFL books. But, to my luck, I had internet access at home. Since last June, I have been posting on CC.

The first forum I always visited was SAT forum, where I met a kind, generous CC'er who bought me Blue book and some other SAT subject tests books. Encouraged so much by her kindness and my parents' support, I immensely studied for the SAT's. Well, I didn't get that high scores, but considerably good scores compared to what I would have gotten if I hadn't prepared at all.

Then I started applying to colleges. I always had to use application fee waivers. I had my counselor a lot of fee waiving letters. And it felt like everything cost much, starting from buying the envelopes to sending the applications through safe post. But those expenses are nothing compared to what Cornell offered me! I got $52,000 scholarship in total. My essays were good, I think, since I was accepted with a likely letter a month before the release date. And writing an essay doesn't cost you money.

So work hard, and be sure to show your hard work in your application. I believe, the adcoms even try to find your hard work, though it might not exist. I mean, they try to think of you as highly as possible.

I hope my experience can give you some hopes in your college process. Just my 2 cents.

PS: I and my parents are MORE than happy!!

emag

I understand the concern of the OP: money gives an advantage.

Frankly I think it helps less in some areas than in others, and the two examples mentioned by the OP are the big two where it is less important than imagined: test prep and leadership trips.

I say it because I'm one of the people who grew up with little money, but have done alright financially since then. My own test preparation was a single study book, but I've sent my kids to Kaplan, PR, and a highly-regarded local tutor. I've found that I was better off with my book than they were with all the extra stuff, and I would love to have the money back.

I've found that the most effective test prep is that I sit down with my kids and either quiz them on vocabulary, or sit with them while they do math problems from *real* SAT / ACT tests (essentially, the Xiggi method). It takes 15 - 30 minutes per session, and we manage to do it about three times per week. My vocabulary is improving, too.

The *best* test prep is desire.

As for leadership opportunities, my junior found hers for free in school. I expect that my freshman will do the same. Frankly, that *is* an area where it helps to have some money; we can afford to live in a district where the school offers plenty of activities. I wish that every school provided similar opportunities.

Please don't think I'm saying money doesn't matter. But with respect to test prep and leadership trips, I think the current offerings exist mainly to fleece the sheep.

Soulside Journey

I wouldn't say that my family is poor, but next to bills and debts, my parents can contribute little to my educational aspirations. I bought the BB for $20 and did three of the practice tests to prep for the SAT. I made a 2210. What's the problem? There are MANY - as in, an innumerable amount - of opportunites for average middle class or even borderline poverty level families. You don't need hundreds or thousands of dollars to do ECs and have beneficial experiences.

SCHIZOPHRENIA IS NOT A DISSOCIATIVE DISORDER. Get it right, people.

Myarmin

It's undeniable that poor people get the short end of the stick. In addition to financial obstacles, I think a lot of poor students have to face cultural and social issues as well. For example, I knew a hard-working classmate in high school whose parents frequently discouraged going to college, since they didn't want to pay for it and didn't really see the value in it.

But I wouldn't consider the OP disadvantaged. Unless you're below the poverty line, admission to top schools is reasonably attainable for most intelligent and motivated people. You can easily study for the SAT by borrowing books, and youth leadership conferences do jack for you anyway.

It's great that you're saving up for a car. My parents don't want me to drive because they don't want me to wreck our only car or spend any more money on gas or insurance. It's bad because there's nothing around my house within walking distance. Maybe I'll look into getting one if I get a high-paying job/internship next summer.

Myarmin

And, while the US has a lot of wealthy people, there's still a good deal of social mobility.

djin44

Yet, at Paschal High School in Fort Worth (45 minutes from you), we manage to have a more successful program (albeit for about half of the students, as the other half tends to not care at all about studies) with funding at most a tenth of your school's. Sure our TAKS (standardized Texas testing) passing rates are lower, but is it not the government's fault for forcing kids, who could care less about school and would rather work, to attend school?

Money is not it man, it's up to the students and faculty to make the most of it. I think that is the most important aspect of a school, not the funding, nor the socioeconomic statuses of the students/faculty, but their desire to learn/teach.

liberate

It's an unfortunate reality; yes.

cadbury

There are many good posts here re: the relationship between wealth and access to educational resources. But I'd like to offer some more practical thoughts...First, if you are motivated, you CAN prep for SAT/ACT on your own with online resources, relatively cheap review books and/or review books from the library. Second, LOTS of colleges today don't even require the SAT. This includes top LACs like Bowdoin, Bates, Bard, etc. Third, all colleges offer need-based aid, and many (though not Ivies or top LACs) offer merit aid as well. Fourth,whatever you do, do NOT go to a school that requires you to go heavily into debt and mortgage your future! Finally, there is no shame in going to a community college or state school.

bestdev

it does take a lot of sacrifice if you do not have money.. if you have money getting into good school is a breath

galoisien

Linguists would object to this statement.

All native speakers subconsciously are intimate with all aspects of their native language's grammar -- excluding variants and dialects which they might be alien to.

However, only a considerable minority bother to *analyse* why grammar behaves the way it does and analysis skills are required to *repair* broken sentences. The other thing is that it's not so much as memorising prescriptivist rules as using one's analytical skills to achieve a consonance across sometimes conflicting principles (for example, strict agreement versus concord). Why do grammatical errors occur? Basically, we create grammatical thought phrases but due to the fleeting nature of thought we often change what's in working memory -- what the "that sounds right to my ear" mechanism draws from. With sufficiently large essays, working memory that has erased the structure of construction A to make room fo construction B might not realise that there is disharmony between both constructions.

That is when analytical and proofreading skills come in.

Anyone who asserts that many people do not know the rules of grammar, or that most people often are unaware of some obscure inkhorn prescription and are therefore unaware of some specific point of grammar, is a subscriber to prescriptivist poppycock, as George Pullum of Language Log would say. (Language Log by the way, is a blog comprised of many famous well-published linguists ...)

I apologise for the multiple nested clauses. What makes some texts harder to read? It's the fact that a particular construction may not fit in working memory (of the shortest term) and therefore we have to break it apart into smaller constructions and fit the ones not in working memory in a sort of inconvenient "swap". Thus usually a construction might unconsciously be processed several times (even if you think you're going over it once) as the already processed parts of the construction are compressed and finally re-assembled in working memory as a compilation of "pointers" to other locations within memory (where the "real" portions of the construction are being shipped off to).

Again, it's never about memorising the rules of grammar. It's developing the analytical skills of language. Most people know how to read and internalise a book, but less than a majority perhaps, might be fit to critically analyse it.

TheGFG

There are clear advantages accorded to students who come from wealthy families, as well as from families with good social connections. I believe that the convenience factor mentioned earlier is more significant than what one might think. A student who has a parent or car at their beck and call can be more efficient and squeeze more activities and study out of every day. For example, it could mean an hour or more a day gained if a kid can leave school right after the club meeting or sports practice ends rather than wait for the late bus which takes a roundabout way home, or wait for mom or dad to get home from work and pick them up.

Also, kids of lower class parents tend to have to do more chores around the house and more babysitting of siblings. A student living in a family which hires a housekeeping service and can pay for babysitters will be freed up to do more. If the family can afford for one parent to be home or home part-time, chances are the student will have someone to do his laundry for him, pack his lunches, and generally be a support whenever necessary (ie. when the kid is stressed and busy) and even when it's not truly needed.

As far as connections, one family I know has managed to arrange research opportunities for each of their high school children at the local university because the father is a professor there. Not only did this help them get into a top school, but they each were named scholars and received special academic scholarship money specifically for having done research. I'm not sure whether an opportunity like this would be available to a random kid whose parent doesn't work for the university. I'll get back to you all after my D tries to arrange a research opportunity at the same university and let you know. Connections definitely do mean a better chance for internships. A student with wealthy and successful parents and other relatives can land plum internship positions at companies where someone they know works.

However, a student who has to make his own luck and work hard for everything he has is also advantaged. The struggle teaches him many skills that are very important for life. Sometimes the kids who had too many "advantages" and were spoon-fed everything by tutors end up floundering on their own in college.

electrifice

While I managed to get into a good university, it irked me quite a bit during all that application anxiety during my senior year, knowing that so many people around me simply had better opportunities than I. I never took an SAT prep course and probably never would have even if I had the $$$ to shell out for it. But I still wonder whether I would have been able to break the 2200 if I had taken a prep course.
A valid point, however, is the type of extra curricular activities you might be involved in. The year I turned 16, junior year, my only real extra curricular activity was work. Others around me were active members of many clubs and societies, played sports, competed in national/international competitions, took part in research, some of them even went abroad for cool/interesting things, and of course they had someone to drive them everywhere for all of this too.
But I have no regrets. I did better than many of them, and got into better colleges than them too (even though I didn't have the money to visit nearly as many colleges as they did).
I agree that in general being wealthier makes things a lot easier. All of the above is possible even if you're poor but in the end its just much harder to get into a position where you can prove yourself and make a difference.

tokenadult

I don't think it's necessary to pay money for a prep course to do well on the SAT or ACT. It may not even be helpful.

Do You REALLY Believe in Expensive Test-Prep Courses?

But it is necessary to read a lot to do well on standardized tests, so it helps to have access to good libraries and good reading instruction.

I've wondered myself whether the college admission scale is still tipped in the direction of wealthier, more academically average students rather than poorer, smarter students.

Do Colleges Actually Prefer to Admit Wealthy Students?

Good luck in your applications.