Harvard people

[Taxi Driver]

John Edwards is speaking and giving populist rhetoric right now to Harvard students on MSNBC. It's hilarious; he's talking about working class families (I respect him deeply for this, as opposed to pandering to the "middle class" soccer moms like Joe Lieberman and leaving the workers out to dry) in front of these kids who were born with silver spoons in their mouths. It's almost sad.

[StephNW4Clark]

1. contrary to popular belief

More than 3/4 of Harvard students qualify for financial aid because they come from less than affluent families.

In 2001 and 2002, many Harvard students joined with the Harvard workers' unions to support a living wage, and protested in the President's Office...I should know, seeing as I was there.

So there are silver spoons at Harvard, but they're not as prevalent as you think.

[creativelcro]

3. yup...

I can confirm that... There are more silver spoons at lamer places, such as BU, where the vast majority of students are too dumb to make it to other places but their parents are willing to pay huge fees...
No offense for the good BU students :)
-C

[AP]

6. Harvard has more students on financial aid than any other Ivy, I believe.

Part of the reason is because they can afford to do that (they could afford not to charge any tuition if they wanted to because their endowment is so huge).

But, I think many of those kids wouldn't be on fiancial aid at a couple fo the other ivy league schools (which I believe general range around 50 ro 60% on financial aid).

[Caution]

8. actually the ivy league schools collude when it comes to financial aid

(this was the case when i was there a while back). They have an agreement that no school gives a better financial aid package than any other ivy league school. It is done to prevent massive competition between the schools in recruitment of students. It's definitely a sleazy way of doing business though they are all in general very generous in terms of financial aid. Typically any student who is admitted to an Ivy league school can go one way or another (loans, grants, scholarships etc). I'm sure there are exceptions.

[Taxi Driver]

10. wow the students striked

Harvard kids sure love to protest. If I were at Harvard I wouldn't be striking though. Wanna know why? BECAUSE I WOULDN'T WANT MY TUITION RAISED AS A RESULT OF AN INCREASE IN THE HARVARD WORKERS' UNION'S PAY!

It all comes down to who suffers as a result.

[creativelcro]

11. but...

those who strike don't pay tuition! -C

[TNDemo]

2. My son's girlfriend is there

and is barely scraping by. Her father works for Vanderbilt and one of their perks is they pay 80% of your child's college tuition. She would not be there if it were not for that. The are struggling just to come up with the living expenses and the other 20%.

I am sure there are plenty of silver spoon kids there but this one is not anyway. :)

[creativelcro]

5. Wow...

Vanderbilt pays 80% of the fees for faculty's kids to attend ANOTHER college ?? Never heard of that! Harvard pays nothing for kid's faculty, even if they attend Harvard!... -C

[AP]

7. That's how you attract good faculty.

Professors kids get into good schools. Vanderbilt wants to make sure that you don't go work somewhere else just becasue you don't want to send your kid to school in TN.

[creativelcro]

9. I get it...

Harvard does not need to do that because they assume nobody will want to leave once they are there... -C


"Professors kids get into good schools. Vanderbilt wants to make sure that you don't go work somewhere else just becasue you don't want to send your kid to school in TN."

[Caution]

4. went to harvard,

lived in public housing, my harvard education helped me drag my family (kicking and screaming...we were loving living off the public trust oh so much...it was great! the humiliation, the looks we got from our "respectable" neighbors, the harassment from local police, the barely having enough food on the table, the out of date, ill-manufactured marshalls clothing...) out of the projects. I wasn't the only one there with nothing. There was a fair share of silver-spooners, but not much more than at any university.

[AnnabelLee]

12. Locking

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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=463744

Thank you
AnnabelLee
DU Moderator