Law School Student Notices A Major Privilege The Working-Class Students Have Over Wealthy Classmates
Hryshchyshen Serhii | ShutterstockMany people just automatically assume that wealth and hard work go hand in hand. While that can be true, a law school student named Phia noticed that the working-class students in her class had a major advantage over their wealthy peers, who didn't really understand how to put in the hard work.
In a TikTok video, Phia explained that she's observed wealthy students at her law school who come from money struggling when they're required to put in real effort to achieve a goal. The crux of her argument was that working-class students who have reached law school have probably had to work and juggle their education just to afford the chance at a degree, and that struggle creates grit that many privileged, wealthy students don't understand.
A law school student noticed that many working-class students already knew how to work harder than their wealthy classmates.
"I don't really think that rich people know how to work hard, and it's not to say that they don't work hard for the things they want," Phia began in her video. "It's just very obvious when you put them in a situation where they have to put effort into something for the first time because for the first time ever, they really, really want something."
She explained that her wealthy classmates often think they are working harder than anyone ever has simply because they put in a little bit of effort. Law school itself is very much a breeding ground for nepotism and those with familial wealth. So, when someone comes along from a working-class background, like Phia, with very few resources and a child of immigrants, they can end up feeling "scrappy" compared to their peers.
"It's really interesting seeing their reactions to my life, particularly when I started law school. I had to have a part-time job, and I'm still working other jobs at the same time that I'm in law school," Phia revealed.
Phia acknowledged that having a job usually isn't optional for working-class students.
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She continued, "You know, you have one thing that you want, for me, that's law school, but at the same time, you have to find other ways to fund yourself. You need to be able to have a job. You need to be able to put groceries on the table. You need to try to make savings, pay rent, all of these things."
For Phia and other working-class students, having a job while getting an education isn't optional. It's just how life goes. An estimated 64% of college students work, and 40% work full-time. It's a reality that's hard to ignore, even though working while in school can have negative effects.
According to research from the National Center on Education Statistics (NCES), students who worked 25 or more hours per week were less likely than those who did not work at all or only worked part-time (less than 20 hours per week) to complete their bachelor’s degrees within six years of starting college.
When telling her wealthy law school classmates about having to work, they were shocked.
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"It was like this face of shock that would come on to them that I was like, 'Oh, you've never done anything harder than law school in your life,'" Phia noticed. "Because a lot of people simply could not wrap their heads around the fact that I had to do something other than law school in order to make sure that I could attend law school."
Law school is expensive in and of itself, with around 85% of law school students graduating in debt. So it makes sense that students who didn't come from money before starting law school have to work to keep themselves afloat and to lessen the debt they'll most likely accrue upon graduation.
But for Phia, she just found it interesting that her wealthy classmates didn't have to worry about any of that in order to go to school and get a degree. It shows a clear gap between working-class people and the wealthy, but when it comes to a difficult task like law school, having that hard-work experience might actually be a leg up.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
