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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.
一个化学课本要300美元。在马德里学习期间坐飞机前往布达佩斯、巴黎和罗马。大四期间，在最后一刻买到美铁车票赶到曼哈顿参加一个工作面试。
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.
对美国精英学校的很多学生来说，这类事情和开夜车以及抱怨食堂伙食一样，构成了他们大学生活的一部分。但对低收入家庭的学生而言，这不仅是难以负担的奢侈品，而且是比讨论性取向更忌讳的话题的一部分：他们钱包的大小。
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.)
让成绩优异的低收入家庭学生进入美国顶级大学被常春藤覆盖的大门，这种故事已写了很多了。事实上，提高人们对大学招生中学生经济背景多样性的关注程度，这是很有必要的，最近布鲁金斯学会（Brookings）的一项研究发现，低收入家庭的学生中只有8%申请了“愿望”大学，这个群体中成绩优异的学生里只有34%进入了全美238所最优秀的大学。（这项研究对低收入家庭学生的定义是：家庭收入排在倒数第四个等级的高中毕业班学生，这项研究于2008年开展，当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，当寒门学子在精英学校中所占比例过低时，富裕家庭的孩子在这类学校中所占的比例偏高。在哈佛大学，45.6%的大学生来自年收入超过200,000美元的家庭，换句话说，这代表了美国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.
虽然对如何让低收入家庭的学生进入美国顶级学府进行了这么多研究，关注程度不可谓不高，但这些学生进入这些大学后的生活是怎样的（校内和校外），却鲜有讨论。
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?’”
最近像病毒般迅速传播的杜克大学学生报纸的客座专栏中，大四学生凯莉·诺埃尔·沃尔多夫（Kelly Noel Waldorf）谈及一所精英大学的低收入家庭学生会感到多么孤立无援。“为什么在杜克大学的校园，我不能谈论我身份中这么重要的一部分？为什么一提到‘贫穷’这个词，人们就与懒惰、消极和没有受过教育联系在一起？我不属于其中任何一种。”她写道。“为什么我们的文化让我如此害怕，或耻于跟我的朋友们说：‘嗨，今晚我没钱跟你们一起外出。’”
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.
在最近进行的电话采访中，沃尔多夫表示，这并不仅仅是杜克大学的问题，而是一个全美各大学中都存在的问题，她和其他人在杜克大学看到的一些有钱学生的做法加剧了这种印象。
“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.
“我过去所在的一个班级里，有位教授认为我们当中基本上没人为了挣钱去干打扫屋子的工作，但这不是事实。”沃尔多夫说。“这就好像是把这部分人群给抹掉了一样。”
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.
贝丝·布雷格（Beth Breger）是“面向多元化美国的领导事业（Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America，LEDA）”的执行董事，该组织为成绩优异的低收入家庭学生提供奖学金，资助他们进入美国顶级大学学习。她说该问题部分源于大多数大学是为中/上层阶层的学生开设的，这些学生在进入大学时已具备一定的“软技能”，而这些软技能是家庭条件不那么好的学生仍需要学习的。
“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.
“第一次开立银行账户。如何跟教授预约。如何请别人给你写推荐信。如何向助教寻求支持。”这些都是低收入家庭的学生需要学习的，布雷格如此表示。而知识上的差距还只是冰山一角。
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.
正如曾经好几周靠吃拉面维生的人最后终于知道，空空的钱包所造成的影响会遍及生活的每个方面。与我聊到这个话题的几位学生说，虽然获得了能够支付学费和食宿费的全额奖学金，但还是不断遇到各种困难，从负担校内学生活动的开销（例如音乐喜剧和音乐会）、缺席“希腊生活”（美国大学特有的一种社团活动，通常是由同性组成的各种联谊会，如兄弟会、姐妹会——译注），一直到周五晚上独自在食堂吃饭，而朋友们外出去价格让他们难以承受的餐厅就餐等等。
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.
甚至连去趟洗衣房这么简单的事都能提醒他们收入上存在的悬殊差距。克里斯汀·拉米雷斯（Christian Ramirez）是一位LEDA奖学金获得者，他在皇后区长大，现在是哈佛大学的三年级学生，他还记得在大一期间，他妈妈来看他时想帮他洗衣服。他们两人都注意到在他们宿舍楼洗衣房的几台洗衣机上，摞着大堆衣物，拉米雷斯意识到他一或两周前看到的是同一堆衣物。这种意识——有人根本忘记要收走衣物——让拉米雷斯和他的母亲都吃了一惊。“我去洗衣服的时候，我会确保每样东西都收走，没有一件衣物落下。”他说。“我个人没法负担弄丢了再买的开销。”他说。
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显而易见的指标之一，而且不止一个低收入家庭的学生提到，从头到脚一身名牌的同学无时无刻不在提醒他们财富上面的差距。杰克·肯特·库克基金会（Jack Kent Cooke Foundation）的奖学金享有极高声望。基金会的名字以华盛顿红人队前老板的名字命名，他将自己的财富留给了成绩优异而又极需资助的学生。雅斯明·阿灵顿（Yasmine Arrington）是该奖学金的获得者，目前就读于依隆大学，在这所南方大学中，男生偏爱卡其布服装，而很多女生则身着Lilly Pulitzer的学院风服饰。阿灵顿还记得当她发现平均一件Lilly Pulitzer衣服的价格时她的反应是什么。
“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.”
“我的反应是‘哦我的天哪，一件衣服要200美元？’”依隆大学三年级学生阿灵顿说。然而，她说这并不会让她烦心，因为她专注于以自己能承受的价格，发展出自己的穿衣风格，更重要的是，这让她很开心。“我没觉得失落，因为这让我更加独特。我的风格就是我的风格，不会有人穿着跟我一样的小山羊皮靴或牛仔裤走进教室。”
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两难处境。那些较富裕的学生并不介意为一个晚上的外出消遣买单——可能打着为大家统一结账的名义——但接受这种“资助”的学生可能会产生一定程度的内疚感。
“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.”
“如果我们外出，而朋友们说：‘哦不，我来结，我来买单，’这种感觉很糟。”杰克·肯特·库克奖学金获得者伊迪丝·卡罗琳娜·贝纳维德斯（Edith Carolina Benavides）说，她是哈佛大学的四年级学生。“我欠我的朋友们这么多钱，此外他们给予了我这么多的支持和帮助，我欠他们的太多了。”
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.
史密斯学院院长莫林·马奥尼（Maureen Mahoney）和非营利教育机构What Kids Can Do总裁芭芭拉·切尔沃内（Barbara Cervone）都注意到了医疗的问题——尤其是拖着不治的牙病或未经确诊的学习障碍——可能会对已经受到学院文化冲击而烦恼不已的贫困学生造成更大困扰。切尔沃内还记得一位来自多米尼加共和国的优秀学生，在上韦尔斯利学院的第一年，她就发现自己有几颗蛀牙，而这些蛀牙无法修补，因为这所大学的医保政策并不包括这一项。在向学院院长递交了一份请愿书后，学校修改了医保政策，这名学生得以接受其需要的牙科治疗并继续其学业。但这种情况表明，学生需要多主动才能获得其需要的资金支持和医疗服务。
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.
但马奥尼指出，这种主动性并不总是自发的，因为很多优秀学生（低收入家庭或其它情况）在他们需要帮助的时候很难开口。当然，假设一名低收入家庭的学生确切知道他们需要哪些资源的话。布朗大学的杰克·肯特·库克奖学金获得者勒娜特·马丁（Renata Martin）说，她在成长的过程中从来不觉得自己是“穷人”，但上了布朗大学这样的学校后，她看到了自己缺失的那些资源和机遇，她甚至看到了自己缺失的那些最简单的东西——比如学习辅导资源或对个人的教学指导——这在高等教育中是很难得到的。
“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.”
“我认为最艰难的地方甚至都不是经济状况，而是努力了解你的同学了解的大部分事物。”她说。“这会让你觉得很孤立，在上公立学校的时候你完全意识不到这些差异，直到你上了一所精英大学，在那里你在很多方面都显得很突出。”
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.
有些大学，比如史密斯学院，以及奖学金基金会，比如LEDA，努力让贫困家庭的学生知道他们可以获得哪些学习辅导和资助资源。在史密斯学院，这种支持包括对遭遇紧急情况的学生提供（有限的）额外资助，因此，如果家里有急事，需要学生搭最后一刻的国内航班赶回去处理的话，低收入家庭的学生能够成行。并不是所有大学或奖学金组织都提供这种资助，因此询问学生处或助学金管理处，以全面了解学生可以获得的支持和资源是非常重要的。
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.
虽然很多接受采访的学生表示，低收入家庭的学生在名校的生活随着其年龄增长和开辟出自己的小天地而逐渐变得较为轻松，但杜克大学的沃尔多夫指出，作为低收入家庭的学生，大四这一年，一件更加令人头疼的事为她带来了额外压力：找工作还是申请进入研究生院。
“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?’”
“我没钱支付参加面试的交通费，如果我的电话在面试前恰好开不了机了怎么办？”她说。“杜克大学很多人都不会想：‘我隔壁同学找工作会不会很难，因为他们没有参加面试的合适服装？’”
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.
实话说，各学校对这些问题的解决办法各不相同。有些学生就业服务中心——比如巴纳德学院——提供套装出借服务，没有职业套装的学生可以用自己的学生证免费借用捐赠的套装。其它学校，例如北卡罗来纳大学，向学生提供了一项补助金，学生可以申请这笔资金以帮助他们购买面试时穿的衣服。同样，有些大学和研究生院（威廉与玛丽学院梅森商学院就是一家）还为找工作的学生提供交通补助费。
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的布雷格表示，研究生院的申请费——包括备考教材、考试费和学校申请费——是如此之高，低收入家庭的学生普遍认为费用高得令人望而却步。因此，他们可能会选择大学毕业后工作几年，存够了钱再申请研究生院。好消息是GRE、GMAT、LSAT和MCAT考试对低收入家庭考生减免费用，坏消息是因为各考试是由不同的考试委员会管理的，减免费用的资格要求和申请流程并不相同，因此在指望能获得考试费减免优待之前，务必要阅读印刷精美的说明材料。
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，与找工作相关的资源并不只是面向低收入家庭的大四毕业生的。此外还有很多补助金和奖学金是提供给想要在大学期间尽早开始无薪实习和研究工作的低收入家庭学生的——这些工作机会常常只有他们那些家庭背景较优越的同学才能得到。College Greenlight就是提供此类奖金学信息的组织之一，它是奖学金搜索引擎Cappex的一个部门，它开发的算法搜索特别为低收入或第一代大学生（通常都是一回事）提供奖学金资源。目前，在College Greenlight上可以搜索到的奖学金信息包括：对有兴趣从事广播新闻或数字媒体行业的学生提供的10,000美元奖励；专门为非裔美籍大三学生提供的25,000美元奖励，有可能会在默克药厂（Merck）的暑期实习计划中获得一个职位；以及在加州伯班克市华纳兄弟电影公司（Warner Brothers Studios）连续四年的带薪暑期实习机会。
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的总经理乔纳森·埃普利尔（Jonathan April）表示，很多大学都设立了自己的实习补助金计划，因此除了使用Cappex/College Greenlight搜索引擎之外，还要向助学金办公室和就业服务办公室了解情况，这非常重要。（造访这两个办公室可能会是痛苦的经历，但对这些事情最好全面了解清楚。）
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.
学生和专家表示，让更多人知道此类资源的存在——并且让大家认识到不要害怕在校园里谈论经济状况上的差异——这将最终有助于名校里低收入家庭的学生放下包袱，活得更加轻松自在。
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.
低收入家庭的学生“需要认识到，他们和这里的任何其他学生一样，有权获得史密斯学院拥有的所有资源。这往往不在于直接的干预，而在于向他们敞开我们学院提供的所有这些美好的机遇，并确保他们知道，这些机遇是属于他们的。”史密斯学院院长马奥尼说。
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.”
布雷格对这些观点表示赞同。“你接受的是花费高达25万美元的教育，你要挤出你能挤出的每一块钱。不管是不是你的钱，你要花最少的钱办最多的事。这些大学如此杰出，部分在于它们提供的这些资源。寻求帮助并不是软弱无能的表现，而是强大的表现。”
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.
如果成年人的建议没有什么帮助，那就请教仍在摸索这一常常让人头疼的领域的某人吧。哈佛大学的克里斯汀·拉米雷斯还记得作为一个低收入家庭学生，刚开始进入一所常春藤盟校学习时所感受到的那种孤独感，但慢慢地，他意识到还有很多像他一样的学生，而且向一位同学或学校的行政人员寻求帮助没什么丢脸的。
“[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.”
“[学校的]资源就在那儿呢，都是为了帮助你的，不要害怕寻求帮助。”他说。最后他总结道，如果学生们培养出一个非常关键的性格特征，他们是很有可能取得成功的。“这就是要顽强。我认为在这些情况下，顽强能让一个人走得很远。”
