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Comment by akhilcacharya | Hacker News Reader

There are probably only a handful of MIT undergrads that are actually underprivileged per year (its unlikely enough with a middle class upbringing). I doubt this will be much of an issue, at least as much of an issue as it would be if my alma mater did this. They'll be fine.

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Some data on the economic background of MIT students: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobilit...

This is interesting data I hadn't seen, thanks. Intuitively its a little bewildering to see the Median family income of someone from MIT be around the same as someone from UNC (a school I got into) - I wonder how the median incomes of international admits factor in.

The bottom 20% of US incomes is between $0 to $25k a year for a household - call me a skeptic but I think its unlikely ~58 (938 x 6.2%) people came from backgrounds like that in America,

Confused, you think it’s just too improbable to believe that MIT admitted 60 kids whose parents make <25k yearly? MIT can cherry pick the highest achieving kids in pretty much any national, heck even global, cohort. It seems reasonable to me that there are (way more than) 60 such kids.

Makes sense globally. Nationally, not as much

Top private US schools provide very good financial aid packages and are a very good choice for underprivileged students if they can get in. Schools in turn want such students for diversity and metrics.

> if they can get in.

These questions are framed in the wrong way. The filter isn't cost, it's getting in, and people from middle class and poor families are at a disadvantage in terms of accomplishments.

You may be interested in Paul Tough’s “The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us”. Tough makes similar points like this throughout the book.

>These questions are framed in the wrong way. The filter isn't cost, it's getting in, and people from middle class and poor families are at a disadvantage in terms of accomplishments.

Yes and no. In that there is correlation but probably not direct causality. For example, Asian middle and poor families seem to do fairly well in getting their kids to have the right achievements.

High correlation, yes. Poor kids don't know how. I didn't grow up poor but nobody in my circle knew how.

Or maybe you tried and it just didn't work out ? What were your test scores ? Did you have something that set you apart academically or otherwise ? Did you castigate MITs prestige in your essay as you seem to do on HN ?

I don’t even remember the MIT essays actually. I do know that they shouldn’t be treated better than me though.

Is there anyone who should be treated better than you ?

MIT is going to be one of the first choices of any student who has a chance to get in. Even though the vast majority don't overcome their disadvantages, MIT still has more qualified applicants from any large background such that they cannot accept them all.

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