在美國名校唸書的貧困生面臨哪些挑戰

Shelling out $300 for one chemistry textbook. Jetting off to Budapest, Paris and Rome while studying abroad in Madrid. Grabbing a last-minute Amtrak ticket to Manhattan for a job interview during senior year.

一個化學課本要300美元。在馬德里學習期間坐飛機前往布達佩斯、巴黎和羅馬。大四期間，在最後一刻買到美鐵車票趕到曼哈頓參加一個工作面試。

For many students at America’s elite colleges, these are as much a part of university life as pulling all-nighters and complaining about dining hall food. But for low-income students, these are not only unaffordable luxuries, but part of a topic that can be more taboo than sexual orientation: the size of their wallets.

對美國精英學校的很多學生來說，這類事情和開夜車以及抱怨食堂伙食一樣，構成了他們大學生活的一部分。但對低收入家庭的學生而言，這不僅是難以負擔的奢侈品，而且是比討論性取向更忌諱的話題的一部分：他們錢包的大小。

Much has been written about getting high-achieving, low-income students through the Ivy-covered gates of America’s top colleges. And indeed, the focus on improving the economic diversity of college admissions is needed; a recent Brookings study found that just 8% of low-income students applied to a “reach” school and just 34% of high-achieving students in this group attended one of the country’s 238 most selective universities. (The study defined low income as being in the bottom fourth, income-wise, of families with a senior in high school. For 2008, the year studied, low-income meant a family income below $41, 472.)

讓成績優異的低收入家庭學生進入美國頂級大學被常春藤覆蓋的大門，這種故事已寫了很多了。事實上，提高人們對大學招生中學生經濟背景多樣性的關注程度，這是很有必要的，最近布魯金斯學會（Brookings）的一項研究發現，低收入家庭的學生中只有8%申請了“願望”大學，這個羣體中成績優異的學生裏只有34%進入了全美238所最優秀的大學。（這項研究對低收入家庭學生的定義是：家庭收入排在倒數第四個等級的高中畢業班學生，這項研究於2008年開展，當年的低收入家庭指收入在41,472美元以下的家庭。）

Not surprisingly, while poor kids are underrepresented on elite campuses, the wealthiest kids are overrepresented. At Harvard, 45.6% of undergraduates come from families with incomes above $200, 000 — in other words, incomes in the top 3.8% of all American households.

毫不奇怪，當寒門學子在精英學校中所佔比例過低時，富裕家庭的孩子在這類學校中所佔的比例偏高。在哈佛大學，45.6%的大學生來自年收入超過200,000美元的家庭，換句話說，這代表了美國所有家庭中收入最高的3.8%家庭。

Yet for all the studies and attention paid to how to get more low income students onto America’s top campuses, there’s little discussion (on or off campus) about what life is like for those students after they win admission.

雖然對如何讓低收入家庭的學生進入美國頂級學府進行了這麼多研究，關注程度不可謂不高，但這些學生進入這些大學後的生活是怎樣的（校內和校外），卻鮮有討論。

In a guest column for Duke University’s student newspaper that recently went viral, senior KellyNoel Waldorf addresses how isolating it can feel as a low-income student at an elite university. “Why is it not OK for me to talk about such an important part of my identity on Duke’s campus? Why is the word “poor” associated with words like lazy, unmotivated and uneducated? I am none of those things, ” she writes. “Why has our culture made me so afraid or ashamed or embarrassed that I felt like I couldn’t tell my best friends ‘Hey, I just can’t afford to go out tonight?’”

最近像病毒般迅速傳播的杜克大學學生報紙的客座專欄中，大四學生凱莉·諾埃爾·沃爾多夫（Kelly Noel Waldorf）談及一所精英大學的低收入家庭學生會感到多麼孤立無援。“爲什麼在杜克大學的校園，我不能談論我身份中這麼重要的一部分？爲什麼一提到‘貧窮’這個詞，人們就與懶惰、消極和沒有受過教育聯繫在一起？我不屬於其中任何一種。”她寫道。“爲什麼我們的文化讓我如此害怕，或恥於跟我的朋友們說：‘嗨，今晚我沒錢跟你們一起外出。’”

In a recent phone interview, Waldorf clarified that this isn’t just a Duke-specific problem, but an issue that exists across the country and is exacerbated by some of the wealth she and others see at Duke.

在最近進行的電話採訪中，沃爾多夫表示，這並不僅僅是杜克大學的問題，而是一個全美各大學中都存在的問題，她和其他人在杜克大學看到的一些有錢學生的做法加劇了這種印象。

“I was in a class once where a professor basically assumed that no one in the class had cleaned a house for money, and that wasn’t true, ” Waldorf says. “It’s sort of like an erasure of that population, ” she says.

“我過去所在的一個班級裏，有位教授認爲我們當中基本上沒人爲了掙錢去幹打掃屋子的工作，但這不是事實。”沃爾多夫說。“這就好像是把這部分人羣給抹掉了一樣。”

Beth Breger, executive director for Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America (LEDA), a scholarship organization that helps high-achieving, low-income students gain admission to America’s top colleges, says part of the problem stems from the fact that a majority of campuses are set up for your average upper/middle class student, one who comes to school with a certain set of “soft skills” that disadvantaged students still need to learn.

貝絲·佈雷格（Beth Breger）是“面向多元化美國的領導事業（Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America，LEDA）”的執行董事，該組織爲成績優異的低收入家庭學生提供獎學金，資助他們進入美國頂級大學學習。她說該問題部分源於大多數大學是爲中/上層階層的學生開設的，這些學生在進入大學時已具備一定的“軟技能”，而這些軟技能是家庭條件不那麼好的學生仍需要學習的。

“Setting up a bank account for the first time. How to make an appointment with a professor. How to ask for a recommendation letter. How to navigate support from a TA (teaching assistant), ” are things lower-income students need to learn, Breger says. And these knowledge gaps are just the tip of the iceberg.

“第一次開立銀行賬戶。如何跟教授預約。如何請別人給你寫推薦信。如何向助教尋求支持。”這些都是低收入家庭的學生需要學習的，佈雷格如此表示。而知識上的差距還只是冰山一角。

As anyone who’s ever subsisted on ramen noodles for weeks on end knows, the effects of an empty wallet can pervade virtually every aspect of life. Students I spoke with talked about how, despite full academic scholarships that cover tuition, room and board, difficulties arise with everything from affording on-campus student events (such as musicals or concerts), to missing out on Greek life, to eating alone in at the dining hall on a Friday night when friends are eating out somewhere they can’t afford.

正如曾經好幾周靠吃拉麪維生的人最後終於知道，空空的錢包所造成的影響會遍及生活的每個方面。與我聊到這個話題的幾位學生說，雖然獲得了能夠支付學費和食宿費的全額獎學金，但還是不斷遇到各種困難，從負擔校內學生活動的開銷（例如音樂喜劇和音樂會）、缺席“希臘生活”（美國大學特有的一種社團活動，通常是由同性組成的各種聯誼會，如兄弟會、姐妹會——譯註），一直到週五晚上獨自在食堂吃飯，而朋友們外出去價格讓他們難以承受的餐廳就餐等等。

Even something as simple as a trip to the laundry room can serve as a reminder of the income disparities. Christian Ramirez, a LEDA scholar who grew up in Queens and is currently a junior at Harvard, remembers a time during his freshman year when his mother came to visit and decided to help him with his laundry. They both noticed piles of clothing on top of the washing machines in his dorm’s laundry room and Ramirez realized that he had seen those exact same piles a week or two before. The realization—that someone would simply forget to pick up his clothes –took both Ramirez and his mother aback. “When I do laundry, I literally make sure I have every single sock and no piece of clothing is left behind, ” he says. “I personally cannot afford to replace them, ’’ he says.

甚至連去趟洗衣房這麼簡單的事都能提醒他們收入上存在的懸殊差距。克里斯汀·拉米雷斯（Christian Ramirez）是一位LEDA獎學金獲得者，他在皇后區長大，現在是哈佛大學的三年級學生，他還記得在大一期間，他媽媽來看他時想幫他洗衣服。他們兩人都注意到在他們宿舍樓洗衣房的幾臺洗衣機上，摞着大堆衣物，拉米雷斯意識到他一或兩週前看到的是同一堆衣物。這種意識——有人根本忘記要收走衣物——讓拉米雷斯和他的母親都吃了一驚。“我去洗衣服的時候，我會確保每樣東西都收走，沒有一件衣物落下。”他說。“我個人沒法負擔弄丟了再買的開銷。”他說。

Clothes can be one of the most conspicuous indicators of wealth, and more than one low income student noted the designer threads peers wear serve as persistent reminders of the wealth gap. Yasmine Arrington is a Jack Kent Cooke scholar – the recipient of a prestigious scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, so named for the former Redskins owner who left his fortune to high-need, high-achieving students — who now attends Elon University, a southern school where guys favor khakis and many girls wear the preppy Lilly Pulitzer brand. Arrington remembers her reaction when she discovered what an average Lilly Pulitzer piece might cost.

衣物是家庭富裕程度最顯而易見的指標之一，而且不止一個低收入家庭的學生提到，從頭到腳一身名牌的同學無時無刻不在提醒他們財富上面的差距。傑克·肯特·庫克基金會（Jack Kent Cooke Foundation）的獎學金享有極高聲望。基金會的名字以華盛頓紅人隊前老闆的名字命名，他將自己的財富留給了成績優異而又極需資助的學生。雅斯明·阿靈頓（Yasmine Arrington）是該獎學金的獲得者，目前就讀於依隆大學，在這所南方大學中，男生偏愛卡其布服裝，而很多女生則身着Lilly Pulitzer的學院風服飾。阿靈頓還記得當她發現平均一件Lilly Pulitzer衣服的價格時她的反應是什麼。

“I was like, ‘oh my goodness a dress for $200?’” Arrington, an Elon junior, says. However, she says it doesn’t get to her because she focuses on developing her own style for her own prices, which most importantly, makes her happy. “I don’t feel deprived because it makes me more unique. My style is my style and no one else is going to walk in with my suede boots or jeans.”

“我的反應是‘哦我的天哪，一件衣服要200美元？’”依隆大學三年級學生阿靈頓說。然而，她說這並不會讓她煩心，因爲她專注於以自己能承受的價格，發展出自己的穿衣風格，更重要的是，這讓她很開心。“我沒覺得失落，因爲這讓我更加獨特。我的風格就是我的風格，不會有人穿着跟我一樣的小山羊皮靴或牛仔褲走進教室。”

Nightlife offers its own set of dilemmas. Those whose wealthier friends don’t mind footing the bill for a night out — in the name of friend-group unity, perhaps — find accepting such financial help can introduce a certain level of guilt.

夜生活上演了它自己的兩難處境。那些較富裕的學生並不介意爲一個晚上的外出消遣買單——可能打着爲大家統一結賬的名義——但接受這種“資助”的學生可能會產生一定程度的內疚感。

“If we go out, and friends are like, ‘oh no, I’m getting this, I’ll pay for this, ’ and then it’s like bah!” says Edith Carolina Benavides, a Jack Kent Cooke scholar who is a senior at Harvard. “I literally owe so much money to my friends, beyond owing them so much for their support and being there for me.”

“如果我們外出，而朋友們說：‘哦不，我來結，我來買單，’這種感覺很糟。”傑克·肯特·庫克獎學金獲得者伊迪絲·卡羅琳娜·貝納維德斯（Edith Carolina Benavides）說，她是哈佛大學的四年級學生。“我欠我的朋友們這麼多錢，此外他們給予了我這麼多的支持和幫助，我欠他們的太多了。”

Maureen Mahoney, the dean of the college at Smith College, and Barbara Cervone, president of the education non-profit What Kids Can Do both noted that medical problems — particularly lagging dental care or undiagnosed learning disabilities — can cause significant snags for poor students who might already be reeling from the academic culture shock. Cervone remembers one high achieving student from the Dominican Republic who, in her freshman year at Wellesley, found she had several rotting teeth, which couldn’t be fixed because the university’s health policy wouldn’t cover it. After a petition to the college president, the policy changed and the student was able to get the care she needed and continue with her studies. But the situation highlights how proactive students have to be to procure the funds and care they might need.

史密斯學院院長莫林·馬奧尼（Maureen Mahoney）和非營利教育機構What Kids Can Do總裁芭芭拉·切爾沃內（Barbara Cervone）都注意到了醫療的問題——尤其是拖着不治的牙病或未經確診的學習障礙——可能會對已經受到學院文化衝擊而煩惱不已的貧困學生造成更大困擾。切爾沃內還記得一位來自多米尼加共和國的優秀學生，在上韋爾斯利學院的第一年，她就發現自己有幾顆蛀牙，而這些蛀牙無法修補，因爲這所大學的醫保政策並不包括這一項。在向學院院長遞交了一份請願書後，學校修改了醫保政策，這名學生得以接受其需要的牙科治療並繼續其學業。但這種情況表明，學生需要多主動才能獲得其需要的資金支持和醫療服務。

This proactiveness doesn’t always come naturally, Mahoney notes, as many high-achieving students (low income or otherwise) have trouble asking for help when they need it. Assuming, of course, a low income student knows exactly what resources they need. Renata Martin, a Jack Kent Cooke scholar at Brown says that she never saw herself as “disadvantaged” while growing up, but coming to a school like Brown brought to light all the resources and opportunities she had missed out on, and missing out on even the simplest things – like academic support resources or individualized academic attention – can make it hard to look for them in a higher-ed scenario.

但馬奧尼指出，這種主動性並不總是自發的，因爲很多優秀學生（低收入家庭或其它情況）在他們需要幫助的時候很難開口。當然，假設一名低收入家庭的學生確切知道他們需要哪些資源的話。布朗大學的傑克·肯特·庫克獎學金獲得者勒娜特·馬丁（Renata Martin）說，她在成長的過程中從來不覺得自己是“窮人”，但上了布朗大學這樣的學校後，她看到了自己缺失的那些資源和機遇，她甚至看到了自己缺失的那些最簡單的東西——比如學習輔導資源或對個人的教學指導——這在高等教育中是很難得到的。

“I think the hardest part is not even financial – it’s trying to know about most of the things that your peers know about, ” she says. “It can be isolating, going to a public high school with all these differences you don’t think about until you go to an elite school where you stand out in many different ways.”

“我認爲最艱難的地方甚至都不是經濟狀況，而是努力瞭解你的同學瞭解的大部分事物。”她說。“這會讓你覺得很孤立，在上公立學校的時候你完全意識不到這些差異，直到你上了一所精英大學，在那裏你在很多方面都顯得很突出。”

Some colleges, like Smith, and scholarship foundations, like LEDA, try to spread awareness of the academic and financial support resources available to low-income students. At Smith, this support includes a (limited) extra fund available to students in emergency situations, so if a family emergency arises and a last-minute flight across the country becomes necessary, a low-income student can make the trip. Not all campuses or scholarship organizations offer this feature, so it’s important to check with the office of student life and/or the financial aid office to get a full list of student benefits and resources.

有些大學，比如史密斯學院，以及獎學金基金會，比如LEDA，努力讓貧困家庭的學生知道他們可以獲得哪些學習輔導和資助資源。在史密斯學院，這種支持包括對遭遇緊急情況的學生提供（有限的）額外資助，因此，如果家裏有急事，需要學生搭最後一刻的國內航班趕回去處理的話，低收入家庭的學生能夠成行。並不是所有大學或獎學金組織都提供這種資助，因此詢問學生處或助學金管理處，以全面瞭解學生可以獲得的支持和資源是非常重要的。

While many of the students interviewed say that life as a low income student at an elite campus got progressively easier as they got older and carved out their own niches, Duke’s Waldorf notes that her low-income status adds additional pressure to one of the more trying parts of senior year: hunting for a job or applying to graduate school.

雖然很多接受採訪的學生表示，低收入家庭的學生在名校的生活隨着其年齡增長和開闢出自己的小天地而逐漸變得較爲輕鬆，但杜克大學的沃爾多夫指出，作爲低收入家庭的學生，大四這一年，一件更加令人頭疼的事爲她帶來了額外壓力：找工作還是申請進入研究生院。

“I don’t have money to pay for transportation for interviews. What if my phone gets shut off right before an interview?” she says. “A lot of the Duke population is not thinking about, ‘is it difficult for my neighbor to job search because they don’t have nice interview clothes?’”

“我沒錢支付參加面試的交通費，如果我的電話在面試前恰好開不了機了怎麼辦？”她說。“杜克大學很多人都不會想：‘我隔壁同學找工作會不會很難，因爲他們沒有參加面試的合適服裝？’”

To be sure, the solutions to these issues vary on a campus-by-campus basis. Some student career service centers — like Barnard’s — have a suit-borrowing program from which students without business-professional clothing can borrow a donated dress suit with their student ID, at no cost. Other campuses, such as UNC, have a stipend students can apply for that can help pay for interview clothes. Likewise, some colleges and graduate programs (William and Mary’s Mason School of Business is one) have stipends available for job-hunting transportation costs.

實話說，各學校對這些問題的解決辦法各不相同。有些學生就業服務中心——比如巴納德學院——提供套裝出借服務，沒有職業套裝的學生可以用自己的學生證免費借用捐贈的套裝。其它學校，例如北卡羅來納大學，向學生提供了一項補助金，學生可以申請這筆資金以幫助他們購買面試時穿的衣服。同樣，有些大學和研究生院（威廉與瑪麗學院梅森商學院就是一家）還爲找工作的學生提供交通補助費。

LEDA’s Breger says that graduate school application costs – including prep courses, prep books, test fees and school application fees – are so high that is not uncommon for a low income student to decide the costs are prohibitive. Instead, they may graduate and work for a few years to save money and then apply to graduate school. The good news is that there are fee-waivers available for low-income test takers of the GRE, GMAT, LSAT and MCAT; the bad news is that because different testing boards run each exam, the eligibility requirements and application process for the fee waivers vary from test to test, so it’s important to read the fine print before you count on receiving discounted exam fees.

LEDA的佈雷格表示，研究生院的申請費——包括備考教材、考試費和學校申請費——是如此之高，低收入家庭的學生普遍認爲費用高得令人望而卻步。因此，他們可能會選擇大學畢業後工作幾年，存夠了錢再申請研究生院。好消息是GRE、GMAT、LSAT和MCAT考試對低收入家庭考生減免費用，壞消息是因爲各考試是由不同的考試委員會管理的，減免費用的資格要求和申請流程並不相同，因此在指望能獲得考試費減免優待之前，務必要閱讀印刷精美的說明材料。

It should be noted that job-related resources aren’t just for low-income seniors; there are a number of stipends and scholarships available for low-income students who wish to pursue unpaid internships and research opportunities earlier in their undergraduate careers — opportunities that are frequently limited to their higher-net-worth counterparts. College Greenlight is one such resource for these scholarships: a division of scholarship search engine Cappex, it dedicates its algorithms to finding resources especially targeted to low-income or first-generation college students (often one and the same). Among the scholarships currently available on College Greenlight is a $10, 000 award for a student interested in broadcast journalism or digital media; a $25, 000 award with a potential spot in Merck’s summer program, specifically for an African American college junior; and four consecutive paid summers at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California.

需要指出的是，與找工作相關的資源並不只是面向低收入家庭的大四畢業生的。此外還有很多補助金和獎學金是提供給想要在大學期間儘早開始無薪實習和研究工作的低收入家庭學生的——這些工作機會常常只有他們那些家庭背景較優越的同學才能得到。College Greenlight就是提供此類獎金學信息的組織之一，它是獎學金搜索引擎Cappex的一個部門，它開發的算法搜索特別爲低收入或第一代大學生（通常都是一回事）提供獎學金資源。目前，在College Greenlight上可以搜索到的獎學金信息包括：對有興趣從事廣播新聞或數字媒體行業的學生提供的10,000美元獎勵；專門爲非裔美籍大三學生提供的25,000美元獎勵，有可能會在默克藥廠（Merck）的暑期實習計劃中獲得一個職位；以及在加州伯班克市華納兄弟電影公司（Warner Brothers Studios）連續四年的帶薪暑期實習機會。

Jonathan April, College Greenlight’s general manager, says that many colleges offer their own internship stipend programs, so it’s important to supplement a Cappex/College Greenlight search with visits to the financial aid office and the career services office. (The dual visit might be a pain, but it’s better to leave no stone unturned with these things.)

College Greenlight的總經理喬納森·埃普利爾（Jonathan April）表示，很多大學都設立了自己的實習補助金計劃，因此除了使用Cappex/College Greenlight搜索引擎之外，還要向助學金辦公室和就業服務辦公室瞭解情況，這非常重要。（造訪這兩個辦公室可能會是痛苦的經歷，但對這些事情最好全面瞭解清楚。）

Ultimately, it’s spreading awareness of resources like these — and not being afraid to have discussions about economic disparities on campus — that will help low-income students feel more at ease at elite universities, students and adult experts say.

學生和專家表示，讓更多人知道此類資源的存在——並且讓大家認識到不要害怕在校園裏談論經濟狀況上的差異——這將最終有助於名校裏低收入家庭的學生放下包袱，活得更加輕鬆自在。

Low income students “need to be assured that they’re as entitled to all the resources of a Smith education as any other student here. It’s often not so much about direct intervention so much as exposing them to all the incredible opportunities we have here, and to make sure they know these opportunities are for them, ” Smith’s Mahoney says.

低收入家庭的學生“需要認識到，他們和這裏的任何其他學生一樣，有權獲得史密斯學院擁有的所有資源。這往往不在於直接的干預，而在於向他們敞開我們學院提供的所有這些美好的機遇，並確保他們知道，這些機遇是屬於他們的。”史密斯學院院長馬奧尼說。

Breger echoes these sentiments. “You’re getting an education valued at a quarter-million dollars and you should milk every dollar you can, ” she says. “Get the most bang for your buck whether it’s your buck or not. These resources are part of what make these campuses so phenomenal. It’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help; if anything it’s a sign of strength.”

佈雷格對這些觀點表示贊同。“你接受的是花費高達25萬美元的教育，你要擠出你能擠出的每一塊錢。不管是不是你的錢，你要花最少的錢辦最多的事。這些大學如此傑出，部分在於它們提供的這些資源。尋求幫助並不是軟弱無能的表現，而是強大的表現。”

If hearing advice from adults doesn’t help, take it from someone who’s still navigating this often tricky terrain. Harvard’s Christian Ramirez remembers feeling alone as a low-income student at an Ivy League institution at first, but slowly realizing there were many other students like him and it was okay to ask one of them, or an administrator, for help.

如果成年人的建議沒有什麼幫助，那就請教仍在摸索這一常常讓人頭疼的領域的某人吧。哈佛大學的克里斯汀·拉米雷斯還記得作爲一個低收入家庭學生，剛開始進入一所常春藤盟校學習時所感受到的那種孤獨感，但慢慢地，他意識到還有很多像他一樣的學生，而且向一位同學或學校的行政人員尋求幫助沒什麼丟臉的。

“[The school’s] resources are there to help you, and don’t be afraid to seek them out, ” he says, ultimately concluding that success is possible if students channel one key characteristic. “It’s about being tenacious. I think tenacity in these situations can go a long way.”

“[學校的]資源就在那兒呢，都是爲了幫助你的，不要害怕尋求幫助。”他說。最後他總結道，如果學生們培養出一個非常關鍵的性格特徵，他們是很有可能取得成功的。“這就是要頑強。我認爲在這些情況下，頑強能讓一個人走得很遠。”