Skip to main content

"Respect for the Bureaucracy": Usability of the Process

College is intimidating, especially if you are a teenager.  Not just the amount of intellectual hard work, but in navigating all the ins and outs of the bureaucracy which can determine whether or not you graduate with crippling debt, or whether you graduate at all.

The idea of "Help" and "Mentorship" needs to be formally institutionalized, to support those who need grants and scholarships the most.  The top 1% already know how to navigate the economic system for all advantages; the rest of us need support and access to these same strategies.  The designers of these processes themselves need to focus on helping out the neediest early on.  College has turned into a "survival of the fittest", in terms of economic and social help, NOT academics.

College completion rates are stagnant, according to this NYTimes article.  "Need-blind" admissions and increasing grants are wonderful, but the system breaks down on a deeper level.  High schoolers are geared towards the goal of being admitted to the college of their dreams.  Especially in a place like America, the narrative is about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

People who are driven to excel understand that their future will be hard, but they are not told exactly what kind of "hard" they will have to face.



Especially if you are not born into a family in the top 1%, or even in the top 50%; you may not have the immediate mentorship-type support that helps you to consistently make the right choices when you are trying to enter a new arena.  Deadlines are significant.  Reach out to the institution for personalized help.  Don't be afraid to ask.  Don't let a setback stand in your way.

The struggle of getting into college (including the YEARS of test prep and homework) pales in comparison to the challenge of the Financial Aid Application Process.  Money is the ultimate decider, especially for First Generation college students.  If you take out a tremendous loan for your freshman year, how much confidence do you have in your future as you see the debt piling up?

This is an example of a huge clusterf*ck of a process.  High expectations, early achievement, signing over your soul to the devil, huge default rate, declining faith in one's country, and ultimately-Depression , both economically and emotionally.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mark Twain in the Azores

I've been doing some research on Twain's visit to the Azores. He stopped in Horta on his way to Palestine-a series of correspondences that would become his book,  Innocents Abroad. Most of what he wrote about the Azores in that book was not kind, he was trying to create jokes-and also created a cynical sense of the superiority of the American traveler. He made himself the joke of an ugly American-especially viewed from the perspective of today. In the Book about the Dabneys, there is evidence that he was in their house. Below is a quote from one of the female residents. “At 10 the parlor was quite full….One young man had his note-book out all the time and remarked as I gave him some verbena,’I am taking notes as I am a correspondent of a paper’.  ‘Horrors;, writes CPD, “how we may appear in print,’
Post a Comment
Read more

#BLM Art and Former Statues

#BLM Art and Former Statues Not only have there been gorgeous murals going up around the world in support of Black Lives Matter, but they are also painting the streets themselves. Black Lives Matter in huge letters, visible from space, or at least from small aircraft. And the statues, ALL the statues seem to be coming down, all the ones which lack compassion.  And even the ones of old men, who might be on the good side of history.  In these days, it is better to rethink everything.  Even those who fought, did they not fight hard enough?  Did they do everything and we are still stuck in this world? Would their ghosts be fighting for change, along with the protesters?  I imagine the ghosts on the better, more equitable side of history, cheering on the living.  All the energy (both living and dead) are contributing to the new world.  And even the ghosts with regretful pasts, are changing their minds.  Even they can change their minds, even they can f...
Post a Comment
Read more

America is on fire!

Plenty of virtual ink has been spilled about the horrendous treatment of African Americans at the hands of the American police.  Those who are supposed to protect and serve will easily kill anyone with non-white skin.  This also applies to immigrants, those with accents and those with mental health issues. But African Americans were brought to this country illegally, forced to work, and have never been freed of the social idea that they can never have respect, especially from "authorities". This has been an issue for the past 400 years, but after 2 months of being locked up, America is bursting at the seams in trying to get the attention of the non-leaders, calling for justice for a man who was choked to death on video over a long period of 8 minutes. Earlier in the week was a black man who was birding in Central Park who videotaped a white woman who called 911 on him.  She knew to call out race, to say that an African American man was threatening her life-even though she...
Post a Comment
Read more