Being poor (and not being wealthy) poses certain challenges at today's elite universities, according to Forbes.

One of the primary issues is that prestigious colleges cater to wealthier students, who make up most of enrollment. At Harvard, for example, 45 percent of students come from a family making $200,000 or more, according to Brookings study. "Poor" students, defined as those from families making $40,000 or less, typically comprise an exceedingly small portion of top institutions. Only 8 percent of low income students applied to a reach school and just 34 percent of those "reachers" attended one of the top 238 universities in the United States, according to the same Brookings survey.

Not only do less privileged students feel economically constrained by the cost of books, eating out, and socializing, they feel as if they can't talk about it. That sentiment was expressed by Duke Senior KellyNoel Waldorf in a column written for school's paper that recently went viral, according to Forbes.

"Why is it not OK for me to talk about such an important part of my identity on Duke's campus? Why is the world 'poor' associated with words like lazy, unmotivated, and uneducated? I am none of these things," Waldorf wrote. "Why has our culture made me so afraid or ashamed or embarrassed that I felt like I couldn't tell my best friends, 'Hey, I just can't afford to go out tonight.'"

Beth Breger of the Leadership Enterprise for Diverse Attention (LEDA), which helps high qualified, low income students get into top schools, told Forbes that colleges are geared towards students with soft skills more typical of wealthier students. Soft skills include setting up a bank account, asking for a recommendation letter, requesting help from a professor or teacher's assistant, and so forth.

Along with other school officials, Breger advises students to use every resource available to them, such as a suit borrowing program at Barnard.

"You're getting an education valued at a quarter-million dollars and you should milk every dollar you can," she told Forbes. "Get the most bang for your buck whether it's your buck or not. These resources are part of what makes these campuses so phenomenal. It's not a sign of weakness to ask for help. It's a sign of strength."