Class and Success in America. Due to the class barriers that affect their education, career, and social life, those of the lower-class have the lowest chance of upward mobility.
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Class and Success
America is well known as the land of opportunity—a country where hard work ultimately leads to success. But, recent trends have shown that upward class mobility, the ability of a person born in a lower class to climb to a higher class, has been stagnant, or may have even decreased. The increasing difficulty of one climbing up to a higher class has widened the gap between the upper and lower classes (Scott and Leonhardt, 2). Class has become even more important than historically contested factors of class mobility such as race (Lubrano, 20). Due to the class barriers that affect their education, career, and social life, those of the lower-class have the lowest chance of upward mobility.
Low-income students do not always receive the quality college education that is essential for upward mobility. They tend to have a lower college graduation rate than high-income students (Leonhardt, 89). One reason for this is that the high schools of low-income students do not provide good preparation for college (Leonhardt, 92). This means the low-income students are less likely to be successful in the college environment. In addition, low-income students have trouble competing for admission to better universities because they tend to have a lower SAT score than privileged children (Leonhardt, 100). Elite colleges are reluctant to admit too many students from low-income families because this “would probably lower the college’s average SAT score, thereby damaging its ranking by U.S. News & World Report” (Leonhardt, 101). Another barrier to education the lower-class faces is the unequal burden of high tuition cost. With such prohibitive tuition cost, students feel that working could be more economically efficient than investing in a college degree (Leonhardt, 92). Even though there is financial aid, “high-income students, on average, actually get slightly more financial aid from colleges than low-income students do” (Leonhardt, 96).
