上哈夫的难言之处

朋友们，
不管你同意不同意无忧， 不管你有没有无忧上大学的苦难经历，不管你是爹还是妈， 不管你的孩子还在上幼儿院 还是已经上了博士后， 不管你是教育工作者， 还是其他的社会成员， 不管你英文好还是不好， 不管你有时间， 还是没有时间， 下面这篇介绍哈夫大学生的文章，无忧请朋友们， 要看一看。
无忧在中国， 在美国都不是什么名牌大学毕业， 也没有干出什么惊天动地的事业，但有一点无忧是明白的， 无忧的经历告诉无忧， 同时愿意分享与朋友们。无忧好多看法是对的， 是亲生经历的， 亲身体会的，对很多人是有一定的间接意义的， 无忧的用意是好的。
无忧的孩子还小， 离上大学还有好久。但看到朋友们如此这般的名校名校， 无忧实在感到可笑， 也为朋友们， 尤其是朋友们的孩子们担心， 如此这样的名校名校， 上了名校又将是如何是可想而知了。
因为出生的贫苦， 无忧的大学是痛苦的， 不愉快的，虽然无忧很小就是很坚强的， 很上进的， 天不怕， 地不怕， 而且抱负之大， 大的有一天想当毛泽东。因为家里贫穷， 无忧大学时， 不能和同学们同生活， 共话语， 与同学， 甚至与老师是那么的隔隔不入， 有时甚至对同学们的友情好意都会误认为是对自己的小看和贬低， 这深深的影响了无忧大学的正常生活以及发展。这样的感觉， 你没有无忧的经历， 你是无法了解的， 体会的。
我们的孩子们上哈夫， 值得骄傲， 值得庆祝，但无忧上大学的经历你可想过否， 下面文章里穷人家孩子们在哈夫的生活感受你可知道否。 如果我们的孩子考虑的不是那么成熟全面， 你这个作爹妈的， 是否可以提醒一下孩子们， 到底要去那所大学？ 哈夫不给奖学金， 或是给一点奖学金，而州立大学给全奖学金。 一个能够给你全奖学金州立大学难道真的就比哈夫差的那远吗？ 你在申请哈夫， 州立大学的时候， 你不是也觉得这个州立大学也是可以的吗？为什么那么的死心眼呢？ 无忧实话告诉你吧， 爹妈经济不充足， 这四年哈夫是痛苦艰难的， 不管你没有奖学金， 你要个思想准备， 下面这篇介绍哈夫大学生的文章， 就告诉你这个道理。
其实大学也就大学， 不是一切， 是人生的一小步，来日方长， 父母朋友们， 还有我们的孩子们， 看开点儿。有能力，有出息，有骨气， 你这个不是北大， 不是哈夫毕业的野鸡大学毕业的，将来如有闲心， 有时间， 有业绩也给北大， 哈夫的骄子们上那么两堂免费的课， 也就是无忧在中国大学时的所谓的学术报告和经验介绍。
无忧也奉劝朋友们以后要拿出一定的时间和精力看看美国人写的，英文版的， 原汁原浆的介绍美国教育的文章， 从而开阔我们的眼界， 解放我们的思想，美好我们的生活，更好培养我们的孩子， 同时也提高一下我们的英文， 更加大美帝国化。
谢谢朋友们， 还有我们的孩子们。
The Harvard disadvantage
Despite outreach, the needy face socioeconomic gulf
CAMBRIDGE - He was valedictorian of his senior class, and had been accepted at all 13 colleges to which he applied. But when Miguel Garcia entered Harvard University last fall, he felt he didn't belong.
As classmates moved into Harvard Yard that first day with parents - and in some cases, chauffeurs - driving fancy vehicles packed with boxes, Garcia arrived alone. His belongings fit into two suitcases and a backpack. His mother, a worker at an industrial laundry, and father, a janitor at a Detroit casino, could not afford the trip.
"Everyone else seemed so polished and entitled and seamlessly adapting," Garcia recalled. "It just felt like they'd been here their whole lives. I was really intimidated. I didn't feel like I had anything in common."
Students of modest means have attended Harvard on scholarship for decades. But with the school making an unprecedented push to recruit more of them by offering virtually free rides, the number of students from families making less than $60,000 a year has surged 30 percent over the last five years - to about one-fifth of all Harvard students.
As it increases its outreach to such students, Harvard is doing more to help them adjust to campus life and address the disconnect that many experience on arrival, said William Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid, who himself was a scholarship student at Harvard.
To make the transition easier, Harvard has quietly expanded a fund that students can tap to pay for such things as admission to dorm dances, tutoring, winter coats, even plane tickets home. Financially, at least, their four years at Harvard would appear to be worry-free, as the school covers tuition, room, and board - close to $50,000 a year. The university has nearly doubled its investment in financial aid since 2004.
Socially, though, less-fortunate students must gingerly navigate a minefield of class chasms on a campus still brimming with legacies and wealth.
Jim Crossen, a Harvard senior from Davenport, Iowa, recalls that he balked during freshman year when his choir required students to don tuxedos for concerts.
"No one ever told me I was poor until I got to Harvard," Crossen said. "It was that culture of saying, 'Just wear your tux.' I don't even own a suit - still."
Even when he discovered that the choir has money to help members in a pinch, Crossen was too embarrassed to ask. He bought a tuxedo for $80 at a bargain basement - it smelled like a basement, too - spending wages from his part-time job at the law school library.
And while many of his classmates went hiking on Harvard-organized trips just before the start of freshman year, Crossen chose to spend the week earning $11 an hour scrubbing toilets in Harvard dorms. He later stopped buying textbooks, using the library instead to save $400 a semester.
It can be difficult to discern the neediest students. There's no support group or club for them - many students prefer not to reveal their socioeconomic standing. The university keeps a list of them, available only to Harvard financial aid officials, to try to meet their needs throughout their undergraduate years, be it emergency money for a root canal or a loan for test-prep courses, an interview suit, or travel while studying abroad.
The college discreetly notifies needy students of the financial safety net early on and checks in monthly through an e-mailed newsletter that reminds them of the benefits for which they are eligible. The system is private and dignified.
The attempts at socioeconomic immersion begin even before students arrive on campus. Harvard hires about 10 scholarship students each year to reach out to talented middle- and high- school students from similar backgrounds, get them to apply, and ultimately, to enroll. They are a diverse group of recruiters - some first-generation college students and the children of alumni whose financial fortunes plummeted due to layoffs or a parent's death; one is the son of an Ethiopian diplomat.
On a recent Saturday, five of the recruiters crammed into an overheated office on campus to call more than 250 low- and moderate-income students who have just been accepted for admission. They congratulated the high school seniors and invited each one to visit Cambridge on a Harvard-funded trip.
"The stakes are high here," Fitzsimmons said in an interview. "If we aren't educating the full range of the population, we won't be educating effective future leaders of the country."
Fitzsimmons, a 1967 Harvard graduate, experienced the initial alienation that some disadvantaged students feel. His parents, who never attended college, ran a convenience store and gas station in Weymouth. Two of his teachers refused to write him a recommendation, telling him, "Harvard is for a bunch of rich snobs. If you go there, you won't fit in."
"The place overwhelmed me with its affluence," Fitzsimmons said. "I certainly felt like I was a kind of a stranger, visiting, for quite some time. This is a much more hospitable place than when I first arrived."
Much of Harvard has changed. Even its exclusive final clubs - once a bastion of privilege - have opened up to students from modest backgrounds. While membership costs thousands of dollars a year, many now let sought-after recruits know that financial aid is available.
Still, a sense of isolation strikes some undergraduates in the most mundane moments. While wealthy housemates bemoan the walk to drop off their dirty clothes at a laundry service, students like Garcia wait hours for the washer and dryer in the dorm basement. Everyone, it seems, has traveled to Paris and summered on the Vineyard. For Garcia, summer isn't a verb; growing up, it was a time for menial work.
Garcia, the first boy in his family to graduate from high school, is grateful to have made it to the Ivy League. Intellectually, the 19-year-old history and literature major feels at home. But the pressure to fit in got to him soon after moving into the suite he shared with three other freshmen. As rich housemates talked of jetting to Las Vegas for the weekend, he privately worried about helping his parents cover their car loan, utilities, and other expenses.
Many days, he just wanted to be alone. He requested a new living arrangement, and weeks after arriving on campus, he moved into a single. It's where he meditates and writes in a journal to sort out his feelings.
"You can't take a kid who's lived in the ghetto for 18 years and just make them feel OK now," Garcia said. "But other people say, 'Why are you complaining? You're at Harvard. You have a full ride. And when you graduate, you'll be just like us.' "
Instead of pretending everyone is equal, he said, the university should encourage more candid conversations about the sensitive topic of wealth and poverty. Garcia would like to see Harvard form a support network for students like himself who want the camaraderie, and establish an office to help them adjust.
Harvard officials acknowledge there is more to be done. During orientation next fall, new students will be asked to discuss readings about class differences and privilege, said Thomas Dingman, dean of freshmen.
"The makeup of Harvard has changed a lot, and this is something we can do to address some of the issues of socioeconomic diversity," Dingman said.
Two weekends ago, recently admitted low- and moderate-income students gathered at the campus pub for a special reception. They drank Shirley Temples, picked up free pocket guides on how to survive Harvard on a shoestring budget, and grilled current scholarship students about their experiences.
Rosario Santillana, a Los Angeles student, said she would not have visited Harvard if the university had not paid for her flight. "As far as money goes, Harvard spoils you," Santillana concluded.
Bradley Craig, a Dallas student whom Garcia hosted that weekend, still had reservations. Garcia spoke to him frankly about his experiences this year but next year looks forward to living with at least one roommate - now that "I'm comfortable with myself being here."
Days later, Craig enrolled, because the fact that Garcia is "still here and wants to stay here says a lot."