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This book examines how previously excluded high-achieving, low-income students are faring socially and academically at an Ivy League college in New England. In the past, research conducted on low-income students in elite schools focused mainly on the admissions process. As a result, there is a dearth of research on what happens to low-income students once they are admitted and attend classes. This book chronicles an ethnographic study of twenty low-income men and women in their senior year at Dartmouth College and follows up with them four and twelve years post-graduation. By helping to bring visibility and self-awareness to low-income students and expose class issues and struggles, the author hopes to encourage elite institutions to change their policies and practices to address the needs of these students.
List of contents
1. How Low-Income Students Became Invisible at Elite Colleges.- 2. How Alex Got to Dartmouth and Obstacles that Prevent Other Low-Income Students from Attending Elite Schools.- 3. Home Environment to Culture Shock.- 4. Passing.- 5. The Unmoneyed Experience.- 6. Hidden Rules.- 7. Dis-"Orientation".- 8. True Grit.- 9. Relationships That Matter.- 10. Great Expectations.- 11. Beyond the Ivory Tower.- 12. Low-Income Students Speak Out on Elite Campuses.- 13. Challenging Our Elite Schools to do Better.
About the author
Kerry H. Landers is Assistant Dean of Graduate Student Affairs in the School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, and Visiting Lecturer in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program at Dartmouth College, USA.
Summary
Explores what is it like for low-income students to feel the need to “pass” in their new college environments where the majority of their peers enjoy a high level of economic, social, and cultural capital
Presents ethnographic data to show disparities between low-income students and their privileged peers
Examines challenges low-income students face academically and personally as they navigate the foreign elite college culture
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