Class Discussions

This past Thanksgiving break, I tried to buy my shuttle tickets to Boston Logan at the transportation office. Actually, “purchase” would be an overstatement; here at the Academy, my full financial aid covers extra costs like my books, my airplane tickets, my laptop and so much more. When the lady swiped my Lion card, she told me I didn’t have any money left on my account. “Oh, I’m on financial aid,” I said. She leaned in, looked at the students in line behind me, and whispered to me, “Next time, say ‘swipe.’ It’ll save us this trouble.”

I wasn’t quite sure why this encounter bothered me for a while afterwards. It had happened to me a couple times before, but I was comfortable with saying I was on financial aid. I just didn’t think saying “swipe” was necessary. Yet I felt like the woman thought I was ashamed of my financial background and that the word “swipe” would somehow help me better conceal my identity. I’m actually very fond of this woman, and I know she meant no harm since some students are understandably hesitant to tell others of their financial situation. But I still felt strangely muffled and silenced by “swipe.”

Here at Exeter, it’s sometimes difficult to discern who is on financial aid and who isn’t. Maybe you can tell by social circles, background knowledge or vacation photos on Facebook, but still, the Academy does a lot to superficially disguise the financial situation of students. For example, although I am on full financial aid, I have a Macbook Pro, an iPad and am going on the fall term trip to Stratford, England next year, all courtesy of the Academy. Unlike race or sometimes gender, there is often no surefire way of looking at a student and saying, “That student’s like me! Poor!” There is no way of finding another student like me, per se, without a direct and proactive confrontation. This often causes difficulties, especially the first year of school, when I don’t know how to deal with problems about class and when it seems like everyone around me comes from immeasurable wealth. But class has deeper roots in the lives of students that extend beyond what kind of phone or laptop they may have.

While reading an opinion piece in The Phillipian titled “Confronting Class” by Zoe Sottile, I noticed the many similarities between class problems at Andover and at Exeter, but I thought they were even more pertinent at Exeter since it is not even an official need-blind school. For instance, I agreed that while the Academy provides so many resources to lessen any financial strains on families, there is no way of getting rid of class issues completely. With a higher social class comes connections and knowledge of how to navigate the more affluent world that defines success today. The author also mentions that Andover has discussed and analyzed issues of race, gender, ability and mental illness, but the school has failed to confront the issues of class. Similarly, Exeter has never formally discussed class and has, in a way, unintentionally hushed it down with words like “swipe.”

Perhaps the most important issue in the opinion piece concerned Andover’s “need-blind” approach to admissions. Sottile writes, “Our need-blind strategy allows Andover students to maintain the tempting illusion that we are here purely on academic merit, that it is merely coincidence that 45 percent of the “best and brightest” come from families that make more than $250,000 a year. The criteria by which we judge intelligence and merit are often based on codified markers of class.” Playing sports, going to summer camps and attending a prestigious school all have strong ties to family income level, yet they are some of the most important aspects to a prospective student’s resume. Unlike Andover, Phillips Exeter Academy is not even officially a need-blind school, yet many students on the campus are surprised to hear this. In this past decade, the school has had to eliminate students not because of their subpar academic merit but rather their financial background. If class problems persist at Andover, a school that clearly boasts its need-blind initiative on its admissions page, the problems must logically be more relevant here at Exeter, yet they are perhaps discussed even less. The school’s false “need-blind” illusion also causes students to pride themselves in that whether rich or poor, everyone works the same amount to get to Exeter. For a college prep school that highly values an elitist idea of success, Exeter ignores the obstacles that some of its students face in getting there.

At Exeter, we revel in the idea of our “youth from every quarter.” Our situation is similar to Andover’s in that 46.3 percent of our students receive financial aid—not full financial aid, but financial aid of some sort. Thus, at PEA, even families of four with a net income of more than $200,000 receive financial aid. Students of families with an annual income of $75,000 or less receive a free education; my family makes less than half of that amount. The remaining 53.7 percent pays the full $47,790 yearly tuition. Thus, our “need-blind” illusion along with our idea that 46.3 percent of our student body receive financial aid leave us under a sham that we somehow accurately represent the socioeconomic diversity of America today. Like Sottile says, in 2012, the average yearly income in the U.S. was $51,371.

Sottile also reveals that Andover has an affinity group called Outliers for its full financial aid students on campus. I relished the idea that Andover has an affinity group for full financial aid students. I especially admired Outliers because I’m a full scholarship student at the Academy who does not have any affiliations with other scholarship programs like Prep 9 or Jack Kent Cooke, meaning I don’t have anywhere else to turn to for help other than this school. I long for the day a student’s background and identity is recognized—not covered up by a silly word like “swipe.” My identity does not just concern my race or gender. My financial background has helped shaped who I am today. Exeter prides itself in Harkness and the connections it fosters when understanding the backgrounds of our “youth from every quarter.” Yet it ignores that my sister and I will be the first to graduate college in our family, that I grew up in and out of debt, that my mother forbade me from inviting any of my friends to my house out of embarrassment. It ignores that my parents know next to nothing about an institution like Exeter, let alone college, that they don’t know what looks “good” on college apps, that my family doesn’t go on vacations, that I had to read tax returns and figure out how to fill out my financial aid application all on my own, that my father cuts trees and mows lawns for a living, and that my parents and I, the generations before them have never been and perhaps never will be affluent. And so we dismiss our financial backgrounds with petty words like “swipe” and ignore discussing true class issues.

Whatever the school may think, I don’t want them to cover up my financial background since I’m not ashamed of it. I would rather have the school directly bring up issues of class rather than assuming I don’t want to talk about it. The only times the school hears from financial aid students are when they talk about how grateful they are or how surprised they are at the school’s socioeconomic diversity—essentially only times in which they corroborate the fictitious beliefs of their more affluent peers. If a student publicly opens up about her or his difficult financial situation, I’m always surprised to see how proud the student body is that they go to the same school as this student. It’s as if students are proud that they can empathize with such a financially struggling student, help out such a student and also get into a school that accepts such a student for his or her merit. It’s as if because of this, more affluent students translate the false “meritocracy” of Exeter to the real world, meaning they can ignore true systemic class issues. It’s as if because of this, Exeter students think they can dismiss the stereotype of the Academy as a rich kids’ boarding school while failing to explain why then over half of the student body comes from families that make over $250,000 a year. On Oct. 12, 2006, The Exonian ran an article that covered the school’s efforts to go need-blind (this initiative was later dropped in 2009). In the article, former Principal Tingley said, “What we want is for Exeter to be a true meritocracy,” and Principal Hassan added, “That’s Exeter. A place for people who are very devoted, very bright and very diverse socioeconomically.”

I will forever be grateful for the numerous opportunities Exeter has given me, but if the school wants to strive for discussion and understanding, it needs to realize it is not yet perfect. Sottile says, “I am tired of students refusing to face that reality [that class is a fundamental part of each student’s experience at Andover], of pretending that the easiest and most comfortable solution is the best.” In essence, like Sottile, I’m just tired. I’m tired of hearing the responses, “But so many kids here are on F.A.” or “But the school does everything for you” or “I worked just as hard as any other applicant to get into this school” when I even remotely try to start a discussion about class. I’m tired of feeling that my criticisms are invalidated by the fact that I feel indebted to the school. I’m tired that we never address the reality of socioeconomic disparity in the world today. I’m tired of having to say “swipe.” ♥