# data[].attributes.body
When I was a senior in HS, I got awards, scholarships, but I was still low-balled by a college counselor who did not believe I could make it at a private liberal arts college. They told me to go to community college first, to see if I could "make it," before wasting taxpayers money.

# data[].attributes.body
I recall back in elementary school, I was really good friends with a hispanic girl. And when we would come back from recess, and she would be taken to an ESL class for an hour. But, as a child I did not understand why she didn't stay in our classroom, so one day I tried to go with her to the class. But, my teacher had to stop me and say that I can't go with them. And I was really upset that I couldn't go with my friend, but it was because her first language wasn't English, but she spoke English perfectly well.

# data[].attributes.body
When I was in high school I was in Advanced math for my grade. I was in a classroom full of all boys and two other girls who were quiet and standoff-ish. I was told over and over that I should not be in the class and that I shouldn't think about pursuing a career with math such as a math teacher or an engineer of sorts. This was never my goal, I was just good at math and liked it. I was told to take the SAT but that I should put extra time in in studying because I 'needed' it.

# data[].attributes.body
Back in elementary school, I had to be put in extra reading and ESL classes. I would be taken out of class for at least an hour everyday because I spoke better Spanish than I did English. It was annoying that I spent so much time in it, only because students would have test out of that class- looking back it was very helpful to overcome my language barrier, but I just wish that the kids and I who were put into those classes wouldn't think less of themselves compared to the other students. I remember that being in those extra reading and writing classes meant that you weren't as "smart" as everyone else.

# data[].attributes.body
When I was younger my school embraced Mexican Culture by teaching us to play Mariachi songs and inviting us to conferences, so that we could come together as a community of students, and learn new songs together. This was a highlight of my year for several years. We were taught to embrace our culture, and to bond with our peers in a happy environment.

# data[].attributes.body
When I was in middle school, I think I was in 8th grade, I was walking home from school with a group of friends. I had a mix group of friends and I remember one of my friends (not my friend anymore) told me that I was pretty for a black girl. I knew that the comment wasn't nice, but instead insulting to African American women.

# data[].attributes.body
I once read an article about the history of who was able to attend college and was appalled. Like many other opportunities, college was only available for elite, white, men. Reading about the "Edinburgh Seven," which were seven women who were denied their degrees based on their sex alone made me appreciate the hard work of so many people for me, other people who don't identify as male, and people of other races to attend university. I think we still have work to do since so many of my previous coursework in Computer Sciences were dominated  by men, but it has been a start.

Heather

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 1642, Harvard College held its first commencement. The graduating class consisted of just nine students. It goes without saying that all were white, Christian, and male.

Harvard reinforced the exclusive nature of higher education by not ranking its graduates by their grades or alphabetically. Instead, these elite men crossed the stage "according to the rank their families held in society."

For the next 121 years, Harvard continued to classify its graduates by their family status.

Higher education began as a privileged institution, designed to advance a certain kind of student and exclude others. Although generations have fought to broaden access to colleges and universities, privilege continues to shape higher learning in the 21st century.

College and the "Poor Boy"

Starting in the Middle Ages, Europe's colleges and universities were meant to train the sons of wealthy men for careers in law, medicine, and the church. Higher education had little to offer the sons of cobblers and farmers, who learned the crafts from their fathers. As a result, higher education remained nearly inaccessible to all except wealthy sons for generations.

Prior to the 20th century, the high cost of higher education was not due to tuition; rather, only the wealthy had the luxury of spending years out of the workforce to pursue an education.

When influential English physicist Isaac Newton wanted to attend the University of Cambridge in the 17th century, his farmer stepfather couldn't foot the bill for his living expenses, leading Newton to pay his way through school by becoming a servant for wealthy students.

Meanwhile, in the American colonies, Harvard devised a similar solution. In 1653, Harvard student Zachary Bridgen paid his way by ringing the bell and waiting on the tables of his fellow students.

Poor students attending elite higher education institutions were often considered second-class citizens.

Even though students like Newton and Bridgen gained admission to elite institutions, they were forced into a second-class status simply because of their poverty.

By the early 20th century, many colleges and universities began administering financial aid programs to expand access to higher education. But these new aid systems raised complicated questions about which students merited support.

In a 1933 essay for The Atlantic, Russell Sharpe wrestled with what he titled "College and the Poor Boy." Sharpe lamented a recently announced policy at Yale University, which stated that the school would only admit as many "financially needy students" as its current aid level could support. Such policies, he feared, would punish deserving students without the means to pay for college.

Working students was a relatively new phenomenon back in Sharpe's day, when only 1 in 3 college students sought part-time or summer work. Nowadays, 70% of full-time students balance school with a job.

A persistent myth identified by Sharpe survives today - the idea that working while in school will "rob college of much of its value" and even "exert a harmful influence upon the individual." Yet this myth rests on the assumption that economic privilege is the norm in college and the less well off are a deviation from that norm.

So what was Sharpe's solution to the problem of college and the poor boy? Admit fewer students. By making college more exclusive, he reasoned, institutions could fund academically excelling, impoverished students.

Russell Sharpe believed that making colleges more selective would allow them to better fund impoverished students.

"Those who are disturbed by such a prospect should remember," he argued, "that the poor boy of real ability would still be able to gain entrance under an intelligent system of limitation."

Ironically, Sharpe's proposal reinforced the privileged nature of higher education. Even as 20th-century colleges and universities reimagined their student bodies, the "standard" student remained white, male, and wealthy.

The 19th-Century Battle for College Access

For centuries, college remained almost exclusively the domain of white men. But in the 19th century, those excluded from higher learning battled furiously for access to the institution. Not surprisingly, colleges - and college students - fought back.

When Sophia Jex-Blake applied to Harvard in the 1860s, the college rejected her application using the rationale that there was "no provision for the education of women in any department of this university."

Jex-Blake eventually gained admission to Edinburgh University to study medicine, where she and six other female students - known as the "Edinburgh Seven" - were forced to pay higher fees than the male students. In addition, the university let professors refuse to teach women, forcing Jex-Blake and the other female students to arrange their own lectures with supportive faculty members.

In 1870, a mob of hundreds surrounded the women as they took an anatomy exam. Now known as the Surgeon's Hall riot, male students attempted to force the women out of the university, even shoving a sheep into the exam room. The professor proctoring the exam reportedly quipped, "The sheep can stay, it is clearly more intelligent than those out there."

Ultimately, the university refused to grant degrees to any of the seven women. Institutional barriers, such as universities denying admission to women or allowing faculty to refuse to teach female students, created nearly insurmountable barriers to higher education, which were designed to protect the privilege of students who saw college as their domain and theirs alone.

Similar barriers excluded Black people from U.S. colleges. In 1850, when Harvard Medical School admitted three Black students, white students spoke out against the decision so forcefully that Harvard withdrew its admission offers.

Institutional barriers have historically prevented women and Black citizens from attending college and earning their degrees.

What's more, many states legally banned Black education. The Virginia Code of 1819 outlawed teaching enslaved people to read or write. Many colleges and universities maintained a policy of refusing to admit Black applicants. As a result of being shut out of the education system, Black Americans established historically Black colleges and universities, more commonly known as HBCUs.

The battle for access continued well into the 20th century. Take again, for example, Sharpe's 1933 article, which confidently declared, "It has been a part of the democratic creed of many Americans that every mother's son is born with an inalienable right to a bachelor's degree." Sharpe assumed, as did so many others, that by definition college students were men.

The 20th century introduced a new method to maintain privilege in higher education: the fiction of a purely meritocratic admissions system.

Debunking the Myth of Meritocracy

Though colleges had grown more diverse by this century, many institutions continued to fight for a more exclusive atmosphere. In their fight, they used a new weapon: meritocracy.

As Harvard increased its student diversity, President A. Lawrence Lowell, who ran the university from 1909-1933, suggested a quota system. Specifically, Lowell wanted to keep out Jewish students, arguing that too many of them would drive away Christians. Lowell also banned Harvard's Black students from the dormitories and dining halls.

In the end, Harvard didn't adopt an overt quota system - it changed its application process. Rather than simply using test scores to admit freshmen, the school prioritized factors like family background and the nebulous concept of "fit." Harvard claimed that the new approach would create a more inclusive school, describing it as a "policy of equal opportunity regardless of race and religion."

In practice, the admissions system intentionally favored already privileged students - i.e., the wealthy white men who would make up the bulk of Harvard's alumni for centuries. New factors, such as legacy admissions and athletic recruitment, made it easier than ever to justify admitting the same type of students.

While publicly arguing that anyone of merit could and would rise to the top, colleges privately reinforced exclusionary policies.

In the words of Yale law professor Daniel Markovits, "American meritocracy [has] become precisely what it was invented to combat: a mechanism for the dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations."

Under the system of admitting students by merit, rejected students found a new scapegoat: beneficiaries of programs designed to expand access to higher education.

Though colleges claimed to base admissions on merit, most privately reinforced exclusionary practices.

According to NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund senior counsel Rachel Kleinman, opposition to affirmative action, which began in the 1960s, stems from "this fear of white people that their privilege is being taken away from them and given to somebody else who they see as less deserving."

In practice, admissions policies at selective schools still favor wealthy, white, male students.

Privilege in Higher Education in 2020

In 2020, colleges and universities actively promote diversity in their student bodies. Diversity and inclusion programs work to recruit and retain students of color and other underrepresented groups - yet many policies still favor privileged students.

For example, about 40% of institutional financial aid goes to students without demonstrated financial need. At some of the most exclusive colleges, the student body contains more students from the top 1% than the bottom 60%.

Educational systems created to privilege one group over others resist change. A recent report from Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce concluded that the American higher education system perpetuates white privilege.

The most selective colleges still enroll predominantly white students, while students of color largely attend less selective public institutions. This systematic exclusion affects the graduation rate and lifelong earning potential of students of color.

Even today, at some of the most exclusive colleges, there are more students from the top 1% than there are the bottom 60%.

The rising price of tuition has become another barrier that privileges wealthy students. Although the cost of college more than doubled between 1974 and 2012, the maximum Pell Grant, which was designed to support low-income students, remained relatively stagnant.

In practice, the rising cost of college and the lack of financial support excludes students who have been fighting for centuries to access higher education.

Today, the admissions process still offers hidden, backdoor access to privileged students. In 2019, education researchers argued that "the most damaging myth in American higher education is that college admissions is about merit." In reality, privileged students boost their chances through test-prep coaching, legacy admissions, and athletic admissions.

Consider last year's college admissions scandal. While celebrities like Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman broke the law to secure spots for their children, thousands of other wealthy families lean on legal donations or legacy status to reinforce their privilege.

Similarly, admissions preferences for athletes largely benefit white men at elite institutions, where playing lacrosse or water polo can secure students a spot in the incoming class. A 2002 study found that athletes fared better during admissions than even legacy students. Athletes got nearly double the boost of legacy students and received admission offers at almost three times the rate of students of color.

In an article for Vox, Jason England, former dean of admissions at an elite liberal arts institution, argued, "I don't believe you can reform college admissions from the inside. The game favors the wealthy and powerful, and that's an extension of our society."

But privilege doesn't end after the gauntlet of the admissions process. In fact, over the past 45 years, the college graduation gap between rich and poor students has widened. In 2013, 99% of wealthy students finished their bachelor's degree, while only around 20% of students in the lowest income group earned theirs. Compared with 1970, this gap is much wider - and much more discouraging.

Colleges and universities committed to diversity and inclusion still face a daunting challenge today: undoing centuries of policies designed to privilege a certain kind of student.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A History of Privilege in Higher Education | BestColleges

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 1642, Harvard College held its first commencement. The graduating class consisted of just nine students. It goes without saying that all were white, Christian, and male. Harvard reinforced the exclusive nature of higher education by not ranking its graduates by their grades or alphabetically.

# data[].attributes.body
Growing up, I never had an experience where I felt that I was treated worse than anyone else around me based on my race or ability. In many ways, I felt that I was treated better than most because I was one of the only girls that was in advanced math and science classes in my year. I was constantly told that I should pursue a degree in STEM, and doing anything less than that was a waste of skills. Further than it just being told to me consistently, I was also expected to pursue a degree in medicine. Even though this was not where my passions were, it was socially expected. This was difficult to hear because I never had an interest in pursuing STEM outside of high school. As a result of this, I think that I had a similar experience with false expectations, but on the other side of the spectrum.

# data[].attributes.body
I went to middle school and high school in an all white town, in an all white school, and it kinda sucked. When my sister and I first started school all was well, but when people started asking, “can i touch your hair?” “Its like cotton candy.” “How do you brush it?” I then realized my classmates have never meet another black person before. It wasn't a bad experience but feeling different was new to me. It was weird to see a confederate flag outside my neighbors house and not being able to do anything about it. I learned to adapt to my new life and blow things off, but when i came to college, which is very diverse, I had to adapt all over again.

# data[].attributes.body
All throughout high school I got special treatment. Going into high school after my brother just graduated with football records and having high academic rewards and teachers being fascinated with my last name as I am directly related to the Hatfield vs Mccoy feud. While attending my grandparents were big donors to the school so I believe that played a part on me being excused from classes and essentially receiving a lot of free grades. During my Junior year of football I developed issues with my brain that I got to escape surgery for teachers and staff although allowing me to skip classes and essentially entire days started taking bets and wagers on if I would make it past 25 years of age actively in front of me when I would be getting ready for practice. So although I got a lot of special treatment I still had adults laughing at my injuries.

# data[].attributes.body
Bela
In my experiences in middle school while living in Georgia our school was mainly black and Latinx students. Now looking back some of our teachers did not put the same effort they did with their white students. They didn't encourage us like they did others and we had a sort of feeling like they gave up on us. We were a group of very difficult students, (behavioral-wise) but we had a select few teachers who were great and we would equally engage in class and our work. From then I knew a teacher makes all the difference and I greatly appreciated that!

# data[].attributes.body
When I was in middle school, I was in a PE class that included weight training. I was very active at the time and really enjoyed lifting weights and gaining strength. One day some boys made a comment that I wasn't "girly" enough because I liked working out and were suggesting that lifting weights was only for boys and that girls shouldn't be strong.

# data[].attributes.body
When I was a child my Uncle married my aunt, who is black, and together they have mixed children. When I would go in public with my aunt, people would look at us confused or differently because we did not look the same. Growing up, people would never believe that my cousins and I were related because of the color of our skin.

# data[].attributes.body
All throughout middle school, I was the only girl in my grade. I had some friends in other grades at my school but I constantly felt left out within my own grade. It's hard to feel automatically different just because of my gender at such a young age, and for three years in a row, sixth, seventh, and eighth. Comments would be made about me being the only girl and some of them were not kind. They made me uncomfortable and put an automatic spotlight on me. I didn't have anyone to play with at recess and I felt really alone. Some classes would sometimes make their focus on more "boy ways of teaching" and relate purely to the boys, leaving me left out. No 11 year old should feel excluded for something they can't control.

# data[].attributes.body
When I was in the 1st grade I went to a private christian school, Trinity Elementary School, which was mostly made up of Indians and Asians. In that school made up of 150 1st graders I was the only white little girl in my grade. After attending that school for nearly two months my parents began to notice I was getting every answer wrong on my homework, failing all my test, not doing well on my in-class work even though I had the exact same answers to every assignment my other classmates had. After bringing this issue to the principal with evidence in hand my parents pulled me out a month later as they felt I was getting singled out and not receiving fair treatment.

# data[].attributes.body
I was in ESL all throughout elementary school and reading lab. One day going back to class I remember that my friends that were in the class wanted to take a shortcut. A teacher saw us take the shortcut and told us that we couldn't do it. She followed all of us to class and made sure the tell all of out teachers what we did. I remember my teacher made me switch my card and it was the first time that I ever got in trouble.

# data[].attributes.body
When I was a baby, my mom took me shopping. She has blonde hair and light features, unlike me who has dark curly hair and gets naturally tan during the summer months. At one of the stores, the owner made a racist comment to my mom about my appearance. She assumed because of how I looked my father was black or Latino. My mom was in complete shock that someone would make such a comment that she dropped everything she was going to buy and left with me in the stroller.

# data[].attributes.body
In elementary school my 4th grade teacher would make fun of my mom's accent and her english during parent teacher conferences and when my mom would call this teacher, he would also mention it during class like "You speak better english then your mom" or "I can't help but laugh when your mom calls". This was the same teacher that placed me in ELS classes even after I had tested out of them and tested in advanced classes. So I would be pulled out of class to go to the ELS classes and I would also attend after school and on the weekends. He continued to just make my learning difficult throughout my time in the school and this happened for about half of the year and the administration did not want to do anything about it so my parents decided that it was better to just move schools.

# data[].attributes.body
When I was on my high school cross country team, the team faced a lot of sexism from my coach. We were assigned jobs to do before meets or after practice. Boys tended to carry the water jugs or move tents while the coach insisted that the girls pass out food during team dinners. Whenever girls would ask to help out with tents or carrying things, the answer was always no. We were always told that our job was to hand out the food during our team dinners. There were many instances like this throughout my four years on the team.

# data[].attributes.body
I went to a college fair my junior year in high school and was talking to a representative from an expensive east coast school. I mentioned that I grew up in a household with a Black single mother. Without any other knowledge, the college rep said that I might be better off sticking close to home because their college was extremely expensive and that my mom might not have the means for me to attend that school.

# data[].attributes.body
I went to a predominately white school and area. I think there was total of 9 Asian Immigrant students at my high school and we all became friends from middle school.  We kinda stuck together honestly. We didn't have any classes together because of the different career tracks we were on but the second we left our classes we found each other. We used to get a lot of the stupid "do you eat your dog?" "jokes" or the BS about how Asians can't drive. After a while we got in to a big fight against some of the popular pretty Caucasian girls at my old school. Due to this I almost had to go court because I had made an instagram post about how my school protects racist assholes. Eventually enough people from the class I was in when the fight happen stood by me, and the case was dismissed but afterwards I became the "court girl"

# data[].attributes.body
When I was in elementary school I used to live next to a water park. I remember one of my teachers would always say things to me like "such a pretty girl" or "you'll be so pretty when you grow up" (they were a lady so I didn't take this as being predatory). But then when I would return to school after the summer break, darker from swimming every day, I would get no such comments, one time she even told me I was too dark. My mother's compliments followed the same trend which is interesting to me since they were both Asian women, my mother having brown skin and my teacher having a much paler complexion. I know even this experience shows my privilege and, in general, I did not face much, if any, racism throughout my life. But within the Asian community, especially among the elders, I have experienced no shortage of colorism.

# data[].attributes.body
When I was younger I was very close with a group of girls since we were together all the time, from school to after-school activities to religious school on the weekends. They all knew me pretty well and all knew that I'm mixed (half white and half Latina). We were also close family friends so they knew my parents and my brothers and we don't look alike at all but they're my biological brothers. Fast-forwarding a few years to high school, one of the girls from that group came up to me and asked "now which one of your brothers is adopted again? or are you the adopted one?". It made me feel terrible because I don't think that is an assumption that should be made when siblings don't look exactly alike, and it's also not the right way to ask. My brothers and I always got looks of confusion because of how we look next to each other and it made us feel like we didn't belong.

# data[].attributes.body
I did one year of middle school here in the U.S. and then continued my education in Mexico, while I was studying here my mom went to a parent teacher conference and there was not a single Spanish speaker. She often got frustrated because she could not communicate with my teachers or the principal so she had to take a person to translate for her every single time. The school is here in Tucson and she was upset that there weren't more staff who spoke Spanish.  She wanted me to leave the school and enroll at a bilingual school so that she could communicate with them.

# data[].attributes.body
My high school is located on the South Side of Tucson; majority of the student and faculty population made up of Latinos. As a school, we embraced who we are, but I would say are ethnic backgrounds played a major role in the resources and funding we received at our school that impacted are educational experiences as a whole. We had what we "needed" and worked for what we wanted, but we weren't as privileged to have similar opportunities like other students, say on the North Side (majority white), due to funding and resources sometimes. But, our community always pushed us to strive for success and don't have money stop us from achieving what we wanted, especially when deciding to go to college.