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Social class influences where even valedictorians go to college, research finds | Inside Higher Ed
Valedictorians from low-income schools aim lower than their wealthier peers in choosing colleges.
While the news clip focuses on the lack of information provided by high school counselors, it would be relatively easy for more colleges to contact these students directly to actively inform them of the options available to them, if those colleges actually had an interest in socio-economic diversity on their campuses.
“Guidance offices tend to provide advice to large groups of students, Radford said. As a result, they focus on college options that are the most common. And that leads to a paradox where the top students actually get worse guidance than average ones.
In the absence of formal guidance from their high schools, needier students turn to who they know for help.” -
The Prom ‘Ask’ Becomes a Big Production – NYTimes.com
Kids using school settings to play out their elaborate and expensive prom proposals. I wish that I had some sense that these kids who’ve turned prom invitations into competitions (not for the date, but for the drama created) understand that while they’re paying $400 to hire a “Prom Invite Planner”, other kids are struggling to come up with the $50 application fee to get to college?
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Education and Class 
Reblogged this on db mcneill – Momsomniac and commented:
I listen to peers relive their college visits as they take their kids around to visit prospective schools. And I recall struggling to come up with the application $ to apply to my “dream college” and the one state school that had already offered me a full ride.
Since I could barely pay to apply, the “dream college” application was just money down the drain – I couldn’t have paid tuition.
I think it’s WONDERFUL that parents take their kids to visit prospective schools, but I can’t help but think about how far apart “normal” can be because of money, even for some of the very best students.
On the NYT prom story: Yet another sign that there is something seriously wrong with this culture. Why aren’t parents teaching their kids that spending hundreds of dollars on BS like this is insane and morally reprehensible while other kids don’t have the money to apply for college and most kids in the world don’t have the money for FOOD? I suppose because the parents are spending hundreds of thousands on adult BS.
None of these kids seem to care much about each other — it seems to be about who’s more “impressive.” I don’t see emotional connections, just an enormous waste of money.