A False American Dream
Many individuals settle in America with this delusional belief that opportunity is at their disposal. The American Dream is a dream that promotes education, job opportunity, and settlement. However, the irony behind this American Dream is that only a selective few can realistically fulfill this dream. Why is this? The upper middle class within the United States is a primary economic force that has contributed to the inaccessibility of higher education.
Higher education is usually perceived as an opportunity to go to college. Although everyone has the right to access this higher education, the existing hierarchy of colleges in America has limited the accessibility of this opportunity. For instance, when comparing two different institutions like Bowdoin, a private liberal arts college, and City College, a public school in New York, there is an array of differences in accessibility.
A college access index is an accurate measurement of economic diversity at a top university or college. According to the New York Times, multiplying the Pell Grant share by the net price a low middle income student has to pay in college provides an accurate college access index. Bowdoin College has a 12% Pell Grant share rate. Within this 12%, low income students receive substantial amount of grants that lower their tuition to an average of $13,000, including room and board. Now, this doesn’t seem inadequate considering low income students at Bowdoin receive friendly financial aid. However, in total the Bowdoin college index measures 1.05%. One would expect this index to be closer to the 2.0% margin, a margin that signifies a college has high economic diversity, due to their immense grant contributions. Unfortunately, elite schools like Bowdoin fail to convey that 69% of its population is comprised from the top 20% of America. Legacy preferences are usually the main cause of these large upper middle class populations in private institutions. Despite all the extensive wealth at their disposal, institutions dominated by the upper middle class usually fail to find an interest or need to improve their economic diversity.
For example, Bowdoin alumnus contribute an average of $574,000 in donations, giving Bowdoin a yearly endowment of $1.34 billion. Clearly, these immense donations lowers the need for a small private school like Bowdoin to recruit lower income students for economic diversity. As a business, Bowdoin wants to continue this high influx of money. As a school, Bowdoin wants to produce the most successful undergraduates with resources at their disposal using this money. Therefore, lower income students rely on public institutions for an easier accessible form of higher education. City College admits 60.5% of students from the bottom 40% of America’s low middle class.
Given this, some might argue that higher education is not completely inaccessible to the lower middle class, considering public institutions like City College make it more accessible.
On the other hand, a common misunderstanding about public institutions is that students graduating from them have a lower chance of obtaining high level job opportunities or making a six-figure salary in the long term. Undergraduates from City College are predicted to have a 62.9% success rate in acquiring a job after college. In contrast, students that graduate from Bowdoin have a 95% success rate in being employed. This is primarily due to the fact that Bowdoin has an immense social network that ensures many students’ future internships and work opportunities. Public schools like City College don’t have an equivalent amount of wealth to provide for resources that may allow students to have a powerful social networking system. After all, networking is the essential form of navigating high level positions within the capitalist system of America. In the end, the upper middle class forces institutions like City College to become a haven for only low income students, limiting their opportunity to provide more as an institution.
Furthermore, the influx of upper middle class families in private institutions has impacted the cost of tuition along the decades. From 1973 to the 2000s, the cost of college rose every year at a rate of 2.3%, faster than the rate of inflation. Once again, the wealth contributed by the upper middle class toward certain institutions manipulates the entire college system. Thus, students today receive less financial aid to deal with college costs. This means students receive less grants and have to rely on costly forms of aid, specifically loans. From 1992-2002, loans taken out rose from 45% to 54%. At the same time the average student debt rose from $8,000 to $18,000. This sort of debt increase is an advantage for the upper middle class because they actually have the money to pay off these debts. In consequence, low income students don’t feel it is worth applying to private institutions like Bowdoin because they can't guarantee sufficient financial aid packages. Also bear in mind, Bowdoin only offers 12% of its student body Pell Grants, signifying a powerful population of upper middle class individuals. Therefore, low income students are forced again to rely on public institutions to have a cheaper access of a higher education. At City College, a student has to pay at least $7,000 in tuition; meaning, the depth won’t be as significant compared to a school like Bowdoin where rising tuition is $48,770.
Evidently, the upper middle class within the United States continues to be an economic force that limits the access of higher education for other social classes. It is important to note that while there are a great deal of elite institutions like the Ivy Leagues whom are need blind, there still isn’t enough economic diversity existing within these schools. While the quality of financial aid is vital, the quantity of different socioeconomic backgrounds are just as important. Economic diversity ensures that everybody is having an equal opportunity to access the higher education in America. Without economic diversity in institutions, the wealth gap existing in America will continue to persist, corrupting the American Dream. The rich will keep getting richer. The poor will keep getting poorer.
