[John-B]

There are so many differences caused by social class that it’s very hard to generalize. I’m from a small town struggling-to-stay-middle-class family, and went to a pricey private university on scholarship. The big difference to me wasn’t social; thanks to a high student activity fee, nearly everything on campus was free, and there were few barriers to participation in any activity I really wanted to try, or at things like parties and dances. But there was a huge difference in preparation; I’d had classes labeled ‘Calculus’ and ‘College English’ for example, in high school, but they weren’t anything like the prep that was available to people from better off families, and the academic competition was pretty fierce until I caught up. OTOH, one good friend of mine was socially traumatized at a state university because, being pretty, outgoing, and smart, she was pledged at a sorority that was about a class and a half up from her, and her lack of the right label, the right experiences, the right tastes, etc. was constantly mocked. And yet again, a smart poor kid sometimes suffers more than anything else from the frustration of not having time to do as good a job on academics as s/he knows s/he could. That’s something I see in my own students all the time; if you’re smart, motivated, and upper middle, you can spend a weekend in the library getting a really fine paper together; if you have to spend Saturday painting a house and Sunday night turning over burgers, you do what’s possible in the time, not what’s possible with your mind. It’s extremely demoralizing to some very good students.

User Detail :  

Name : John-B, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 42, City : rural, State : CO, Country : United States, Occupation : college professor, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

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