Giving Compass' Take:

· Liz Willen discusses Anthony Abraham Jack's new book detailing the obstacles economically disadvantaged students face on elite campuses and how these institutions can do a better job with scholarship students.

· What are some of the major struggles that poor students face in school? How can elite institutions better support these students? How can donors make a difference on this front? 

· Interested in reading more about this topic? Check out this article about interventions for low-income college students.

After reading Anthony Abraham Jack’s eye-opening exposure of what it’s like to be poor on elite college campuses, I can’t help wishing we could transfer some of the anxiety around getting into these exclusive institutions toward solutions for improving life for students who actually beat the odds and get there.

As shown in Jack’s The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students, getting in can mean going hungry over spring break, cleaning the toilets and showers of dorm mates and being directed to separate entrances at events.

Jack’s book brings home the pain and reality of on-campus poverty and puts the blame squarely on elite institutions for fostering policies that often “emphasize class differences, amplifying students’ feelings of difference and undercutting their sense of belonging.”

Read the full article about how poor students survive on elite campuses by Liz Willen at The Hechinger Report.