Exposing the Gaps in Princeton’s Facade of Economic Inclusivity

Out of all of these gaps comes a delicate truth. Despite being told that we would have resources to help, or that we deserved to be here because we were admitted, or that we are just as smart as the other students here, we are inevitably behind students from wealthier areas. I asked the students I spoke to if anyone warned them it was going to be like this, to which all but one responded to the effect of, “No. I wish someone did.” The one first-year student who said she was warned about Princeton recalled it was by her sister, who advised her, “Don’t come here.”

I’m not asking that Princeton graffiti its walls or get as many questionable people with trench coats to stand on random corners and harass students in order to make low-income students feel more “at home.” But I do wish the dishonesty of Princeton’s economic diversity marketing to end. I wish Princeton didn’t tout its economic diversity with statistics while providing no real space for low-income students to feel both comfortable and independent. I wish that all the hard lessons I have learned about real life didn’t mean nothing, because I’m in a place where low-income hardly exists and those difficult lessons I learned don’t apply to networking and studying. I wish that other students would understand that the “orange bubble” affects different students differently. That being stuck in the wealthy campus of Princeton can feel like losing one’s identity and background.