Hmmm… My son is a senior at an elite university and both he and I would argue that part of the reason he’s doing so well there is because he graduated from high school in an underserved community. He had to learn skills such as perseverance, taking initiative and critical thinking early on because if he wanted to do well in his studies he had no choice but to do those things. He definitely had a few teachers who genuinely cared and went above and beyond to help ensure his success but the majority of his teachers didn’t give a crap about the students and were just there for the check. Therefore, if he wanted to excel, he had to learn equip himself with the tools to do it on his own. Because of that, he walked into college much better equipped than a lot of his peers who had everything handed to them their whole lives.

Now, the culture shock and hostility that he encountered from bigots who felt he didn’t “deserve” to be there is a different story…but, just like he’s done with every other challenge in his life, he persevered and is on track to be graduate Cum Laude this spring.