Upstairs-Downstairs at College

[msmemory_archive]

Harvard's noticing, maybe Wellesley won't be far behind. This is exactly the disparity that I dream of addressing if I ever win the Lotto and can set up a specific fund at my alma mater, with the addition of fee-based lessons such as riding or music.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/education/11harvard.html
Many Harvard officials, Dr. Faust said, feared that cost was driving the choices students made about graduate school and careers and that it had created what amounted to a two-class system among Harvard undergraduates. Mr. Fitzsimmons referred to it as “the upstairs downstairs syndrome.”

The officials said, for example, that often only the wealthy students can afford to pursue highly valuable but unpaid research opportunities with professors, take unpaid summer internships, study abroad or even spend time with their friends.

Comments

[rosinavs.livejournal.com]

This has been well-known outside of Harvard for a long time. In mathematics and some other disciplines there are NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates programs. All or most of them occur during the summer, and as far as I know, all of them pay the students a stipend so they can afford to do this rather than take a summer job. And they pay for travel and living expenses during the program. These programs are open to students across the country, and may draw some from overseas. Many schools are now trying similar programs in-house.

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Ironically, when my sister did one of those (though it was a DOE program of the same sort, not the NSF ONE), it turned out her boss wasn't allowed by his university (Princeton) to write her a recommendation for grad school. Even though her work was excellent. And he'd hired her cuz she was a farm kid and knew how to fix stuff, which came in handy when testing fusion reactor equipment. Go figure. And yeah, me and my siblings were totally the target market for an experience like that. But not being able to get a recommendation from that boss greatly curtailed the usefulness of the internship, great job or not.

[rosinavs.livejournal.com]

That's... stupid. I am increasingly frustrated at stupid regulations, although the ones I am currently frustrated with are the ones for student organizations where I work. I had to ride on the bus (not van, not carpool, not public transportation, bus) for a field trip sponsored by four student groups this weekend, because they couldn't go without a chaperone. THEY ARE ADULTS! (Sorry, frustration levels are high on this.) However, this did not stop one student from not paying attention to when we were meeting to get back on the bus and holding up the rest of the group until we found her.

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Oy. Yeah. I suggested that my sister gripe to the DOE that this had happened, but she was kinda busy with grad school aps and finishing her degree, when she found out about it.

Field trip regulations. Oh man. At least you found her: we actually had a teacher leave a student behind on a field trip at my high school. The field trip was to a nearby state university, an hour away in a BAD part of town. I think it was absentmindedness on the part of both the student AND the teacher.