What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school? (2015)
I can relate to this, though my situation is a little weirder than most. My parents were immigrants and we were very poor when I was younger. They became doctors sometime around middle school, so we effectively shifted up to upper-middle class. Our quality of life changed in a few ways - didn&#x27;t have to think about the cost of healthcare or school. But we also didn&#x27;t start buying fancy clothes, cars, or food. My parents have never gone to fancy galas, and they don&#x27;t exactly rub shoulders with the wealthy.<p>I remember feeling very jarred when I first met &quot;rich white people&quot; in high school. It blew my mind. What did these people do? What are their families like? It truly fascinated me. This continued well into college where I met even more people from very, very wealthy backgrounds. I dated someone whose father was a dean of the school we went to, and I was extremely nervous when I visited their... mansion.<p>Because I met a bunch of &quot;rich white people&quot; in high school, I became fairly acclimated to them. It really does taking meeting someone face-to-face to realize that they&#x27;re not so different from you. I imagine it&#x27;s the same when rich people meet very poor people.<p>It makes me think that the issue isn&#x27;t that poor students feel uncomfortable around rich students, but rather that the first time they ever meet rich students is in college. If they met earlier - perhaps in elementary or middle school - this discomfort would not be there.