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The Harvard disadvantageDespite outreach, the needy face socioeconomic gulfBy Tracy Jan, Globe Staff | May 12, 2009
CAMBRIDGE - He was valedictorian of his senior class, and had beenaccepted at all 13 colleges to which he applied. But when Miguel Garciaentered Harvard University last fall, he felt he didn't belong.
As classmates moved into Harvard Yard that first day with parents -and in some cases, chauffeurs - driving fancy vehicles packed withboxes, Garcia arrived alone. His belongings fit into two suitcases anda backpack. His mother, a worker at an industrial laundry, and father,a janitor at a Detroit casino, could not afford the trip.
"Everyone else seemed so polished and entitled and seamlesslyadapting," Garcia recalled. "It just felt like they'd been here theirwhole lives. I was really intimidated. I didn't feel like I hadanything in common."
Students of modest means have attended Harvard on scholarship fordecades. But with the school making an unprecedented push to recruitmore of them by offering virtually free rides, the number of studentsfrom families making less than $60,000 a year has surged 30 percentover the last five years - to about one-fifth of all Harvard students.
As it increases its outreach to such students, Harvard is doing moreto help them adjust to campus life and address the disconnect that manyexperience on arrival, said William Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions andfinancial aid, who himself was a scholarship student at Harvard.
To make the transition easier, Harvard has quietly expanded a fund that students can tap to pay for such things as admissiontodorm dances, tutoring, winter coats, even plane tickets home.Financially, at least, their four years at Harvard would appear to beworry-free, as the school covers tuition, room, and board - close to$50,000 a year.The university has nearly doubled its investment in financial aid since 2004.
Socially, though, less-fortunate students must gingerly navigate aminefield of class chasms on a campus still brimming with legacies andwealth.
Jim Crossen, a Harvard senior from Davenport, Iowa, recalls that hebalked during freshman year when his choir required students to dontuxedos for concerts.
"No one ever told me I was poor until I got to Harvard," Crossensaid. "It was that culture of saying, 'Just wear your tux.' I don'teven own a suit - still."
Even when he discovered that the choir has money to help members ina pinch, Crossen was too embarrassed to ask. He bought a tuxedo for $80at a bargain basement - it smelled like a basement, too - spendingwages from his part-time job at the law school library.
And while many of his classmates went hiking on Harvard-organizedtrips just before the start of freshman year, Crossen chose to spendthe week earning $11 an hour scrubbing toilets in Harvard dorms.He later stopped buying textbooks, using the library instead to save $400 a semester.
It can be difficult to discern the neediest students. There's nosupport group or club for them - many students prefer not to revealtheir socioeconomic standing. The university keeps a list of them,available only to Harvard financial aid officials, to try to meet theirneeds throughout their undergraduate years, be it emergency money for aroot canal or a loan for test-prep courses, an interview suit, ortravel while studying abroad.
The college discreetly notifies needy students of the financialsafety net early on and checks in monthly through an e-mailednewsletter that reminds them of the benefits for which they areeligible. The system is private and dignified.
The attempts at socioeconomic immersion begin even before studentsarrive on campus. Harvard hires about 10 scholarship students each yearto reach out to talented middle- and high- school students from similarbackgrounds, get them to apply, and ultimately, to enroll. They are adiverse group of recruiters - some first-generation college studentsand the children of alumni whose financial fortunes plummeted due tolayoffs or a parent's death; one is the son of an Ethiopian diplomat.
On a recent Saturday, five of the recruiters crammed into anoverheated office on campus to call more than 250 low- andmoderate-income students who have just been accepted for admission.They congratulated the high school seniors and invited each one tovisit Cambridge on a Harvard-funded trip.
"The stakes are high here," Fitzsimmons said in an interview. "If wearen't educating the full range of the population, we won't beeducating effective future leaders of the country."
Fitzsimmons, a 1967 Harvard graduate, experienced the initialalienation that some disadvantaged students feel. His parents, whonever attended college, ran a convenience store and gas station inWeymouth. Two of his teachers refused to write him a recommendation,telling him, "Harvard is for a bunch of rich snobs. If you go there,you won't fit in."
"The place overwhelmed me with its affluence," Fitzsimmons said. "Icertainly felt like I was a kind of a stranger, visiting, for quitesome time. This is a much more hospitable place than when I firstarrived."
Much of Harvard has changed. Even its exclusive final clubs - once abastion of privilege - have opened up to students from modestbackgrounds. While membership costs thousands of dollars a year, manynow let sought-after recruits know that financial aid is available.
Still, a sense of isolation strikes some undergraduates in the mostmundane moments. While wealthy housemates bemoan the walk to drop offtheir dirty clothes at a laundry service, students like Garcia waithours for the washer and dryer in the dorm basement. Everyone, itseems, has traveled to Paris and summered on the Vineyard. For Garcia,summer isn't a verb; growing up, it was a time for menial work.
Garcia, the first boy in his family to graduate from high school, isgrateful to have made it to the Ivy League. Intellectually, the19-year-old history and literature major feels at home. But thepressure to fit in got to him soon after moving into the suite heshared with three other freshmen. As rich housemates talked of jettingto Las Vegas for the weekend, he privatelyworried about helping his parents cover their car loan, utilities, and other expenses.
Many days, he just wanted to be alone. He requested a new livingarrangement, and weeks after arriving on campus, he moved into asingle. It's where he meditates and writes in a journal to sort out hisfeelings.
"You can't take a kid who's lived in the ghetto for 18 years andjust make them feel OK now," Garcia said. "But other people say, 'Whyare you complaining? You're at Harvard. You have a full ride. And whenyou graduate, you'll be just like us.' "
Instead of pretending everyone is equal, he said, the universityshould encourage more candid conversations about the sensitive topic ofwealth and poverty. Garcia would like to see Harvard form a supportnetwork for students like himself who want thecamaraderie, and establish an office to help them adjust.
Harvard officials acknowledge there is more to be done. Duringorientation next fall, new students will be asked to discuss readingsabout class differences and privilege, said Thomas Dingman, dean offreshmen.
"The makeup of Harvard has changed a lot, and this is something wecan do to address some of the issues of socioeconomic diversity,"Dingman said.
Two weekends ago, recently admitted low- and moderate-incomestudentsgathered at the campus pub for a special reception. They drank ShirleyTemples, picked up free pocket guides on how to survive Harvard on ashoestring budget, and grilled current scholarship students about theirexperiences.
Rosario Santillana, a Los Angeles student, said she would not havevisited Harvard if the university had not paid for her flight. "As faras money goes, Harvard spoils you," Santillana concluded.
Bradley Craig, a Dallas student whom Garcia hosted that weekend,still had reservations. Garcia spoke to him frankly about hisexperiences this year but next year looks forward to living with atleast one roommate - now that "I'm comfortable with myself being here."
Days later, Craig enrolled, because the fact that Garcia is "still here and wants to stay here says a lot."
Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com. 
© Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company |
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