Back in grad school, many of us called our stipends "welfare for middle class kids who couldn't get a job."

When I was deciding between academia and industry in the mid 90s, the postdocs I was looking at in physics were paying 16-19k. Which at the time, was below poverty level wages for a family. Compare that to the modest offer given to be by my future employer, which was slightly below my thesis advisors comp at the time. When I left them, I was making more than the dean of the school.

I didn't have an upper middle class background. My divorced mother supported 3 kids on crap pay. I skipped the more expensive schools I got into, even with scholarships, as I could afford only one school after it was all said and done.

I took a year off after undergrad, before grad school, to earn money, as I was unsure of my financial situation while there. Later, during Ph.D. studies, I supported myself and my wife on consulting work I did on the side, because $8k/year stipend doesn't quite pay for food and housing.

Please, drop the discussion of privilege. I had none. I used none. I simply worked my ass off. As did my wife (a woman of color if it matters, though neither one of us think it does, or should).

Like the terrible statement by Mr. Obama and Ms. Warren, yeah, I built it. I poured blood, sweat, and tears into it. No one helped elevate me above others. I had to deal with discrimination against me personally, in some parts of grad school (MS not Ph.D).

Its not just me though. The other students I met had similar stories and backgrounds. Precious few of them had family resources to draw on, friends to lean on to help them get ahead.

Only people who don't really know, who haven't experienced this first hand, who haven't interacted with the people actually going through this, could call this "privilege". The rest of us call it hard work, nose to the grind stone, luck, and the intelligence to capitalize on this luck, by recognizing a path to take advantage of this.

>I didn't have an upper middle class background.

Then you're an exception. If you came from a poor and uneducated background then congratulations on the climb but pretending that your story is an example of the average experience of the doctorate just isn't true ("The other students I met had similar stories and backgrounds"), even if those going through phd programs don't all have wealthy families, they commonly have family members who have done same thing which is a privilege all in it's own, one you can't even buy.

>I had none. I used none.

>I built it. I poured blood, sweat, and tears into it. No one helped elevate me above others.

You'll forgive me but everyone has had help.

>Only people who don't really know, who haven't experienced this first hand, who haven't interacted with the people actually going through this, could call this "privilege". The rest of us call it hard work, nose to the grind stone, luck, and the intelligence to capitalize on this luck, by recognizing a path to take advantage of this.

Oh boy here we go. Yeah like I said getting a medical degree is hard work, nose to the grindstone, luck and intelligence, all this stuff. Why is it that wealthy kids are vastly over-represented though? There's obviously additional components - the ability to get your kids into a good highschool, parents who have the time to devote a lot of attention to their kids, parents who have gotten a graduate degree themselves and so can better guide someone through it. There's all sorts of other privileges too, being interested in the right things, maybe even at the right time is a great example. Privileges are all around us. Maybe you really are a Horatio Alger story jumped off the page, if so recognize that you're the vast minority.

You lucked out going to school in the 90’s for one thing when it was a lot more affordable. You lucked out being born in the US. You lucked out getting a big brain.

I lucked out too but I realize it.

I lucked out having the Soviet Union collapse and flood the market with physicists when I was looking.

No wait. Thats sort of the opposite of luck.

[edit] School was unaffordable for me at any of the 10 places that accepted me and offered me scholarships. I still had to come up with money I didn't have, and couldn't get. I suppose that is luck too? No, I had to work off campus in undergrad as well to pay for food/board/etc in addition to school.

I turned a crappy situation for myself and my family into a positive outcome, only by giving up my chosen career path, and pursuing industry, in a field outside of my studies.

Really lucked out there. No ... I guess I didn't.

Seriously, hard work, being smart enough to recognize what was going on around me, remaining calm during an incredibly stressful multi-year situation, and managing the processes through to a successful outcome. That is not privilege, and anyone making the claim that somehow being able to make lemonade out of the lemons that your "privileged" life dealt you ... yeah. About that.

You play the hand you are dealt. You play it hard. You play it smart. You know the house always wins. You know you really shouldn't swing for the fences. Insert any other cliche you want here.

But you accept that the hand you are dealt is what you have to deal with. You do not feel sorry for yourself for being born into poverty or money. You simply bust your butt. And play that hand hard. You have no choice.

So you discuss that a lot of people were luckier than you, which I have no doubt is true. But you don't discuss all the people even less lucky. A number that runs in the billions.

That's the empathy and perspective that talk of "privilege" is asking for. Don't feel guilty, just keep that in mind when judging others or discussing policy.

Did you got to a public or private university? In either case, society helped a great deal towards what you obtained.

Here’s a good Obama quote:

> Our higher education system is one of the things that makes America exceptional. There's no place else that has the assets we do when it comes to higher education. People from all over the world aspire to come here and study here. And that is a good thing.

Or this:

> Now, as a nation, we don't promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That's an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.

One look out the window at a landscaper with brown skin should disabuse anyone that that works in an air conditioned office that luck isn’t a huge factor in success.

I worked on a farm, construction, worked in lumber mill, and had jobs through school as well but I have no doubt that I won the “ovarian lottery”. As a side effect, I’m not in a hurry to “pull the ladder up behind me” because my hard work somehow makes me more worthy than all the other people who worked even harder but weren’t as lucky.