Current Events > A smart guy from a poor area: what are his/her chances of making it to Harvard?

(+) Yeah! (+)

If people from there worked the hardest they can ever work to get there?

Imagine if their family had no money to help them. Can they do it?

I dont see why people I grew up with in my hood who were poor end up in dead end jobs despite how smart they were in school.

They legit could have made it to Stanford, Brown, or Harvard but apparently money is an issue. Theres no full scholarships for the poor?

I dunno, but I imagine even if you could get the money together a lot of the most prestigious universities would try not to accept you if you don't have some kind of pedigree behind you. I'm not really basing that on anything though.

They'd have to be pretty ambitious and hardworking on top of being smart. Like volunteering and community stuff would probably go a long way.

It's very low because if you aren't a legacy/donor gentry class student, or you didn't attend a feeder private prep school, then you probably won't have the 'soft skills' necessary to pass their interviews.

Money is in one sense the least of your worries because they'll pay the poor students they do take to look good. But if you don't have family wealth then it is very difficult to get in.

this isnt a real life example but the legally blonde musical added character to elle woods bland love intererest and gave him a back story about having to work 2 jobs while he was also studying at harvard just to afford it

im literally just saying this as an excuse to post his song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7oyDs2K7I8

My cousin did it. She got a free ride and is a doctor now. She grew up with a single mother and in a bad neighborhood.

It's not impossible

DuuuDe14 posted...

My cousin did it. She got a free ride and is a doctor now. She grew up with a single mother and in a bad neighborhood.

It's not impossible

wow. How difficult was it for her?

Statistically speaking, incredibly low

AzNDarkSamurai posted...

wow. How difficult was it for her?

A lot of studying and focus.

The real question is: which is more probable, the smart one, or the really good college football player?

Low. Meritocracy is an ideal, there's a video explaining why.

Lemme see if I can find it.

Edit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDEL1pTYOhs&ab_channel=AdamSomething

The smart guy can go to any school and achieve their plan, wtf topic is this?

MedeaLysistrata posted...

The smart guy can go to any school and achieve their plan, wtf topic is this?

I knew many people in my hood who were smarter than some of the guys at Goldman Sachs or Google who never got their chance to go to college because of how poor they were

its a shame they wasted their smarts and ended up in dead end jobs due to money

put it this way

there is alot of smart people from poor areas hoping to get into Harvard and you have to beat them all

only a small amount of people attending Harvard will be these guys

AzNDarkSamurai posted...

I knew many people in my hood who were smarter than some of the guys at Goldman Sachs or Google who never got their chance to go to college because of how poor they were

its a shame they wasted their smarts and ended up in dead end jobs due to money

IMO you're not smart unless you actually accomplish your goals.

If Meritocracy were real the world would look a lot different lol

MedeaLysistrata posted...

IMO you're not smart unless you actually accomplish your goals.

I used to think that way until I saw the reality of what happens in the working world working with a lot of rich people

Lots of people on the top have accomplished all of their goals but you would be surprised how stupid a lot of them are. Im convinced some of them would be in low paying dead end jobs if they did not know the right people to get where they were.

AzNDarkSamurai posted...

I used to think that way until I saw the reality of what happens in the working world working with a lot of rich people

Lots of people on the top have accomplished all of their goals but you would be surprised how stupid a lot of them are. Im convinced some of them would be in low paying dead end jobs if they did not know the right people to get where they were.

Nooo you see this is a fair society where everyone is capable of everything regardless of wealth, fame, or ties!

You too can make a multibillion dollar company with a small loan of several hundred thousand from your parents after dropping out from high school

Akagami_Shanks posted...

If Meritocracy were real the world would look a lot different lol

I'd be even worse off?

ROBANN_88 posted...

The real question is: which is more probable, the smart one, or the really good college football player?

The smart one since no really good football player is going to go to Harvard to play football.

AzNDarkSamurai posted...

I used to think that way until I saw the reality of what happens in the working world working with a lot of rich people

Lots of people on the top have accomplished all of their goals but you would be surprised how stupid a lot of them are. Im convinced some of them would be in low paying dead end jobs if they did not know the right people to get where they were.

Who knows lol.

I don't think smart is super important anyway. What is so important about smart that smart people should be guaranteed a good life?

AzNDarkSamurai posted...

They legit could have made it to Stanford, Brown, or Harvard but apparently money is an issue. Theres no full scholarships for the poor?

They have FULL scholarships for people that make less than 100k. All you gotta do is make it through the application process.

https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/why-harvard/affordability

If your family's income is less than $75,000, you'll pay nothing.

This is absolutely true.

Regardless, a smart guy from a poor area CAN make it into Harvard or some other Ivy leagues, but a big thing is legacy admissions. They take up a huge portion of legacy applicants into their school, after that everyone else is fighting for a spot. They DO diversity admissions as well if you didn't notice the huge case involving Harvard vs Asian communities, but I know Harvard looks a lot at more than just grades and volunteer work. How well you do in interviews makes a big difference and what school you come from applies as well.

If you're poor, your best chances are to go to a difficult school or even a private school through scholarship, do a lot of volunteering but also MAKE THE NEWS, while nailing the interview process. Something I've noticed about Ivy league people is if you google them, you can find their achievements listed on google from before college. Which probably means they made a big enough impact somewhere, even if it's in the middle of bumfuck no where. That is the biggest thing I've noticed so far that's unusual and people don't bring up. Not saying it's what they do now, but back then for sure. I'm sure now they have some metric that mimics that quality in some other way, possibly social media mentions or something. You must have IMPACT in your community, notable impact.

scholarships only help with education costs. I dont think they help with housing, travel, or anything else they will need

And I cant imagine their parents can afford to shoulder the cost of all that with their low paying dead end jobs

AzNDarkSamurai posted...

scholarships only help with education costs. I dont think they help with housing, travel, or anything else they will need

And I cant imagine their parents can afford to shoulder the cost of all that with their low paying dead end jobs

You're right, books were probably the biggest complaint, but the harvard scholarship pays for food, housing and most costs associated with the school. Outside of basic living needs like toothbrushes, even things like toilet paper were provided by them.

Travel? You don't need to travel to the school if you live on campus and that is fully paid for. GETTING TO the college itself if you're out of state, well...you'll have to pay for that. But if you got in, surely you can find some method of affording it. Even if you have to take a short term loan the opportunity cost of not going to an ivy league will be massive. Say you go to a local community college you'll probably pay more going there than you would if you went to an Ivy. You'd be paying for gas, books etc, similar things like going to an Ivy but forever.

I guess the other thing I should mention, if you get into an Ivy league school, even mentioning it for OTHER scholarships automatically grants you a high chance of getting them. So you can use those funds to pay for other things.

Think how great it is for a scholarship to say we helped fund a student through Ivy league school.

^You are probably correct on a lot of that except for one part. The loan.

Who will loan to poor people besides cash checking stores or payday loan places? A lot of guys in poor areas have either bad credit or no credit at all and I dont know how many people are gonna be excited about taking a loan with 200% interest.

AzNDarkSamurai posted...

^You are probably correct on a lot of that except for one part. The loan.

Who will loan to poor people besides cash checking stores or payday loan places? A lot of guys in poor areas have either bad credit or no credit at all and I dont know how many people are gonna be excited about taking a loan with 200% interest.

A loan can be as simple as 1000 dollars to get a flight to an ivy league school. Whether it's credit card or some sort of other method you probably can get one for that much and then take up a job working in the library or something. It'll suck but it is doable. Now as for full blown transport of ALL your belongings or something, I'm not exactly sure how to pull off the logistics, especially considering once summer hits you basically have to leave, unless you do some summer program.

TBH I'm not the one to ask about how to get to an out of state Ivy League when poor. I'm sure using your scholarship money that you hopefully signed up for because you were confident enough for an Ivy is enough. But funding finds many ways. If you're already in, I'm sure you can find someone or some people to help you, or you were good enough to sign up for scholarships and can use that to get there. You could probably crowdfund getting there gofundme or whatever. There ARE many avenues. If you were good enough to get into an Ivy while poor you're good enough to at least get the minimum needed to travel there. From 100 bucks to renting a UHaul and gas to get to your instate Ivy up to probably 1500 to fly and move to your out of state Ivy and then figure your shit out for what to do when summer comes.

You CAN work at an Ivy usually in some sort of library position and they pay decently and have good hours. Something like 15+ bucks or so. Usually as a result of federal work study.
https://seo.harvard.edu/for-students/federal-work-study

So those short term loans CAN be paid off relatively quickly. You don't have to worry about food or housing in the meanwhile, but good luck balancing work and harder course loads. Again, not the average student can manage it, but an Ivy league student should and is expected to be able to do this.

^true

I never believed someone is smart just because they have a degree

Zero

None unless that poor person gets extremely lucky. It's the same reason why lots of kids from poor areas almost never get top of the line jobs in the corporate world.