Big 3 Schools and Celebrities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am so mad at my self for following this thread over two pages. I have lost brain cells that I will never get back.

+1

Ditto

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:17:36 Some would consider the fact that you have lived in DC for twenty years makes you pretty provincial.

I suspect that I am older than you, so perhaps your youth limits your ability to imagine the possibilities. I wrote that I have lived in DC for "over twenty years." That is true, but though those twenty-plus years mark my total time in DC, they have not been continuous. I have lived and worked various stints abroad, in Asia and Europe, and domestic, on the west coast, in between.

Perhaps, you are right, I have seen enough of our own country and the world to recognize and humbly acknowledge that most of our Inside-The-Beltway celebrities have no recognition, generate no respect, exercise no influence, and have no power in places from Rye to Riyadh. And frankly, the "DC celebrity" class does not really care, as long as they are perceived and treated as all of those things here in DC (which they are).

Why obsess and envy the 3-5 percent of your children's classmates whom you consider to have "DC celebrity" parents? It seems to bother you, I think wrongly, because you believe that they received preferential treatment in private school admissions. Believe me, most of the ones you consider to be "DC celebrities" are not worth the headache, problems, and heartache of admitting an unqualified candidate.

Enjoy the company of your fellow school parents, most of us just are ordinary people.

We're probably all in agreement that you're ordinary, as most parents are. This thread is a colossal comprehension fail by "worldly" posters such as yourself.

[Anonymous]

I get what 17:36 is saying. Washington DC and the "celebrity" and the media circus (the sort of stuff written about by Mark Lebovitch in "This Town")--outside of the beltway no one cares. Most people don't read politico. Hell, inside of the beltway, fewer people care than you would think. I've lived in a variety of other parts of the country, and Washington DC famous is just what PP describes. Most journalists, politicans, and pundits who people care about in DC are not actually famous. Since the vast majority of the country cannot name all nine supreme court justices, I think that tells you something about whether, say, the HUD secretary, is truly famous (yes, I know, Julian Castro is a rising star in the democratic party, but I doubt my in laws could tell you who he is). I doubt there are even major security concerns for most "DC celebrities." I imagine that PP is right in saying that the sort of admissions bump these children get is wildly overestimated by people in DC and especially on this board.

Other than the president, the vice president, supreme court justices, the speaker of the house/house minority/majority leader/senate minority/majority leader government figures are by and large not famous. I guess maybe among college educated people who tune into the news we can add Secretary of State, UN Ambassador, and Attorney General to that list. As far as pundits go, aside from those who host big talk shows, those people aren't really famous either.

[Anonymous]

Are there more of these kids at the Big 3 than other private schools or well-regarded publics? Surely public schools will have kids with these types of parents, but there are more kids so there may not be a concentrated group.

I don't know, but when I was growing up (in the '90s), I went to one of those DC schools referred to as "JKLM" on this board. We definitely had kids of Clinton cabinet members, political appointees, and well regarded journalists there when I was a kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Celebrities live in New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, not here.

Really, except for the "Major" political offices and appointments -- President, or Vice President, Supreme Court Justices, or Senators -- no one here truly possesses sufficient "celebrity" status to make a whit of difference in admissions.

With most of the parents you must consider "celebrities" at your school (note to you, that journalist or deputy such-and-such, isn't a celebrity by any other city's measure), their very limited and inconsequential "influence" and "pull" is not worth an admissions office bending backwards to admit an unqualified candidate -- so their child is certainly their on their merit.

Yes politicians but also the likes of Queen Noor who sent two of her children to Maret.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Other than the president, the vice president, supreme court justices, the speaker of the house/house minority/majority leader/senate minority/majority leader government figures are by and large not famous. I guess maybe among college educated people who tune into the news we can add Secretary of State, UN Ambassador, and Attorney General to that list. As far as pundits go, aside from those who host big talk shows, those people aren't really famous either.

NP. Let's turn this around a little bit -- Who would you and other posters consider truly and legitimately famous? Sure, I'll give you A-List celebs like Clooney or Pitt or Aniston. I'll also give you top-tier business & billionaire tech folk like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk. But outside 3-4 dozen people from those obvious groups spread around the entire country, who are you going to call famous? By your rarified standard, there aren't many people who make the cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other than the president, the vice president, supreme court justices, the speaker of the house/house minority/majority leader/senate minority/majority leader government figures are by and large not famous. I guess maybe among college educated people who tune into the news we can add Secretary of State, UN Ambassador, and Attorney General to that list. As far as pundits go, aside from those who host big talk shows, those people aren't really famous either.

NP. Let's turn this around a little bit -- Who would you and other posters consider truly and legitimately famous? Sure, I'll give you A-List celebs like Clooney or Pitt or Aniston. I'll also give you top-tier business & billionaire tech folk like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk. But outside 3-4 dozen people from those obvious groups spread around the entire country, who are you going to call famous? By your rarified standard, there aren't many people who make the cut.

A better question, given the original post, is who is sufficiently influential to sway the admissions process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other than the president, the vice president, supreme court justices, the speaker of the house/house minority/majority leader/senate minority/majority leader government figures are by and large not famous. I guess maybe among college educated people who tune into the news we can add Secretary of State, UN Ambassador, and Attorney General to that list. As far as pundits go, aside from those who host big talk shows, those people aren't really famous either.

NP. Let's turn this around a little bit -- Who would you and other posters consider truly and legitimately famous? Sure, I'll give you A-List celebs like Clooney or Pitt or Aniston. I'll also give you top-tier business & billionaire tech folk like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk. But outside 3-4 dozen people from those obvious groups spread around the entire country, who are you going to call famous? By your rarified standard, there aren't many people who make the cut.

A better question, given the original post, is who is sufficiently influential to sway the admissions process[i].

And that would likely be someone, with or without name recognition, but with a net worth of over $250 million. So I imagine that any person among the world's highest-paid hedge fund managers, traders, Silicon Valley titans, most highly-compensated Fortune 500 executives. I imagine that a private school might make admissions accommodations for these monetary celebrities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get what 17:36 is saying. Washington DC and the "celebrity" and the media circus (the sort of stuff written about by Mark Lebovitch in "This Town")--outside of the beltway no one cares. Most people don't read politico. Hell, inside of the beltway, fewer people care than you would think. I've lived in a variety of other parts of the country, and Washington DC famous is just what PP describes. Most journalists, politicans, and pundits who people care about in DC are not actually famous. Since the vast majority of the country cannot name all nine supreme court justices, I think that tells you something about whether, say, the HUD secretary, is truly famous (yes, I know, Julian Castro is a rising star in the democratic party, but I doubt my in laws could tell you who he is). I doubt there are even major security concerns for most "DC celebrities." I imagine that PP is right in saying that the sort of admissions bump these children get is wildly overestimated by people in DC and especially on this board.

Other than the president, the vice president, supreme court justices, the speaker of the house/house minority/majority leader/senate minority/majority leader government figures are by and large not famous. I guess maybe among college educated people who tune into the news we can add Secretary of State, UN Ambassador, and Attorney General to that list. As far as pundits go, aside from those who host big talk shows, those people aren't really famous either.

All true, but I'd still put more value on some cabinet undersecretary than on a has-been athlete and cereal pitchmen from decades ago who shamelessly uses his Kardashian connection and stage-managed tranny spectacle to try again to become famous for being famous.

[Anonymous]

NP. Let's turn this around a little bit -- Who would you and other posters consider truly and legitimately famous? Sure, I'll give you A-List celebs like Clooney or Pitt or Aniston. I'll also give you top-tier business & billionaire tech folk like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk. But outside 3-4 dozen people from those obvious groups spread around the entire country, who are you going to call famous? By your rarified standard, there aren't many people who make the cut.

Yeah, that is the whole point of being a celebrity--it's not super common. You are in the public eye and people know who you are across a broad range of the population. Aside from what you mentioned, I would say that a few best selling (e.g. J.K. Rowling) and pultizer prize wining novelists might be considered famous (say with this whole Harper Lee scandal lately, most people know who she is), some musicians (both pop stars and people like Yo-Yo Ma or Phillip Glass), civil rights leaders (like, say, Malala Yousefi), and a handful of socialites like the Kardashians or Paris Hilton. If no one outside of the beltway knows who you are, you are not a celebrity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

NP. Let's turn this around a little bit -- Who would you and other posters consider truly and legitimately famous? Sure, I'll give you A-List celebs like Clooney or Pitt or Aniston. I'll also give you top-tier business & billionaire tech folk like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk. But outside 3-4 dozen people from those obvious groups spread around the entire country, who are you going to call famous? By your rarified standard, there aren't many people who make the cut.

Yeah, that is the whole point of being a celebrity--it's not super common. You are in the public eye and people know who you are across a broad range of the population. Aside from what you mentioned, I would say that a few best selling (e.g. J.K. Rowling) and pultizer prize wining novelists might be considered famous (say with this whole Harper Lee scandal lately, most people know who she is), some musicians (both pop stars and people like Yo-Yo Ma or Phillip Glass), civil rights leaders (like, say, Malala Yousefi), and a handful of socialites like the Kardashians or Paris Hilton. If no one outside of the beltway knows who you are, you are not a celebrity.

Yeah, but if you set the bar that high, then there aren't enough "celebrities" to have a meaningful discussion. Rather than debate the semantics of "celebrity," or who properly fits in the group, surely we can agree there is some level of celebrity associated with high-level political appointees, tv news personalities, and journalists whose columns get discussed at length. The question OP was asking relates to how those people are treated.

If you want to pretend you're so hot shit that you can't be bothered by such down-market personalities, then perhaps you need a different thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am so mad at my self for following this thread over two pages. I have lost brain cells that I will never get back.

+1

+2

[Anonymous]

It is not that those type of people do not qualify as "DC Celebrities" (note to the Industry, if you are looking for your next reality flop), they certainly do. The original post posited that this "DC Celebrity" status is enough to merit special admissions consideration and success in the Big 3, but it certainly does not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not that those type of people do not qualify as "DC Celebrities" (note to the Industry, if you are looking for your next reality flop), they certainly do. The original post posited that this "DC Celebrity" status is enough to merit special admissions consideration and success in the Big 3, but it certainly does not.

A number of posters, including former students at those schools, feel otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other than the president, the vice president, supreme court justices, the speaker of the house/house minority/majority leader/senate minority/majority leader government figures are by and large not famous. I guess maybe among college educated people who tune into the news we can add Secretary of State, UN Ambassador, and Attorney General to that list. As far as pundits go, aside from those who host big talk shows, those people aren't really famous either.

NP. Let's turn this around a little bit -- Who would you and other posters consider truly and legitimately famous? Sure, I'll give you A-List celebs like Clooney or Pitt or Aniston. I'll also give you top-tier business & billionaire tech folk like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk. But outside 3-4 dozen people from those obvious groups spread around the entire country, who are you going to call famous? By your rarified standard, there aren't many people who make the cut.

A better question, given the original post, is who is sufficiently influential to sway the admissions process.

Well said.