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

[dreda.livejournal.com]

I remember being in college as an English major, watching not only my drama-major friends but my science-major friends keep up a schedule that simply did not permit a job. Lab classes ate up so much time that they couldn't hold down any more than a token job (maybe 6-8 hours a week, probably less).

Interestingly, most of my hard-science major friends were not on financial aid. An English degree - for those who are already accustomed to living on a pittance!