NYTimes: Why Poor Students Struggle on College Campuses

Policymakers and researchers concentrate so much on increasing college completion rates. However, the discussions rarely focus on what happens to poor and low-income students once they arrive on the college campus. The policy roundtables often ignore the importance of social and cultural capital in determining whether a student will fit in and succeed in college. When a poor student from a rural or inner city neighborhood enters the world of the elite, he or she may not relate to their wealthy peers. It is the little things -- where you went to school, knowledge of current events and high culture, and participation in certain sports or social clubs-- that can isolate a student from the campus community. Furthermore, financial setbacks (particularly the rising cost of tuition, books, housing, and transportation) can increase the likelihood that a poor student struggles and drops out of college.

Kids at the most selective colleges often struggle academically, but they are capable of doing the work. The real key is whether they feel comfortable going to professors to ask for help or teaming up with other students in study groups and to manage the workload. At that school in Brooklyn, I taught history, leading students through writing 10-page position papers with proper citations, as well as presenting and defending their work to a panel of adults. Other teachers did the same in their subjects. Through the college application process, these students had help with every step — including convincing their parents that going away to school would be a good thing.

But once those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds arrive on campus, it’s often the subtler things, the signifiers of who they are and where they come from, that cause the most trouble, challenging their very identity, comfort and right to be on that campus. The more elite the school, the wider that gap. I remember struggling with references to things I’d never heard of, from Homer to the Social Register. I couldn’t read The New York Times — not because the words were too hard, but because I didn’t have enough knowledge of the world to follow the articles. Hardest was the awareness that my own experiences were not only undervalued but often mocked, used to indicate when someone was stupid or low-class: No one at Barnard ate Velveeta or had ever butchered a deer.

Urban students face different slights but ones with a more dangerous edge. One former student was told by multiple people in his small Pennsylvania college town not to wear a hoodie at night, because it made him look “sketchy.” Standing out like that — being himself — could put him at risk.

Another link I recommend on social and cultural capital is Peter Kaufman's Guide to Succeeding in College on Everyday Sociology.