The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges are Failing Disadvantaged Students

At a hard-to-get ticket for a movie screening featuring the film’s director, Jack sees Marie, an Upper-income Black student, and wonders how any undergraduate could’ve gotten tickets. She takes a seat next to a professor and reaches into her Longchamp bag to grab a copy of the professor’s book. Then, she asks him to autograph it for her.

While professors often tell students at Renowned that their doors are always open, students who are unfamiliar with the norms of elite academic institutions are put off by this. They do not know what the phrase means, nor are they comfortable when they see adults interacting with students outside the classroom. Students who are used to the environment because of their background in high school, however, feel entitled to adults’ time. They understand how to develop a rapport with faculty and, thus, end up with better letters of recommendation, internships, and even jobs. Administrators and faculty mean well, but they assume that undergraduates will come to them if they need something, while never explaining how to do so. For instance, professors announce office hours, but never define what office hours are to encourage engagement. In other examples, students are often rewarded not for academic performance, but for being outgoing with adults: Natalie, an academic adviser at a dorm, awarded various honors based almost exclusively on which students she knew best.