Adversity Score

[Bobb]

Don't scholarships, grants and endowments already make a quality education available at little cost to nearly anyone who wants one?

Yes. The poor get enough Pell Grants, enough to cover the entire tuition at a lower-priced college. The middle-class gets low-interest student loans. Good students get scholarships.

Really, the victims of over-priced education is the lower-middle class that can't get a free ride and can't pay off loans as easily as those with more money. Same for medical care. The poor get it free, the rich can afford it, the lower-middle class gets the shaft.

 

[Legion]

Yes. The poor get enough Pell Grants, enough to cover the entire tuition at a lower-priced college. The middle-class gets low-interest student loans. Good students get scholarships.

Maybe college isn't for everyone.

Just because people think they should be entitled to something doesn't mean they deserve to get it, especially if they can't overcome the adversity of poverty to pay for it.

An achiever would qualify for scholarships based on academic scores or perform military service, wouldn't they?

 

[Legion]

You don't have to poor to not be able afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket change.

Then kids can join the US Armed Forces and earn an education. There are plenty of opportunities offered by the government without borrowing.

 

[NiftyNiblick]

I remain skeptical.

I'm a socialist, but I'm not a populist.

I believe in elitism to the extent that all people aren't born with the same toolbox.

Intelligence is an accident of birth, not a result of environment or nurturing.

 

[Bobb]

Poverty is not academic adversity. Studying is free.

 

[CFM]

Isn't a "free" or low-cost post-secondary education already available for nearly anyone who wants one?

If you put forth the effort, plenty of academic scholarships are available and can produce that result.

 

[CFM]

I remain skeptical.

I'm a socialist, but I'm not a populist.

I believe in elitism to the extent that all people aren't born with the same toolbox.

Intelligence is an accident of birth, not a result of environment or nurturing.

So you finally realize you were born stupid and there's nothing you can do about it. Good job, boy.

 

[CFM]

I'll provide a little skepticism from the left.

Adversity is real. It probably impacts SAT scores.

But if an academic institution wishes to choose the best applicants possible, why would it care?

I got decent, not great (in the 1200s combined) SAT scores coming from a working class family with no previous college graduates.

I got into a decent, not great, private university in the mid 1960s.

How should it work?

Do you have proof of your SAT score claims and anything to show you have something other than a GED?