I go to one of those publics listed, and have never heard anyone say anything resembling "Compared to your kids, they are extraordinary." It seems to me that if you are rich enough to be a 1%er and choose a public school over a private one, you are making a statement that you don't think your kids are so special that they need something better than what the decent large local school can provide. |
Amen. And since yield for Ivys is so high, it is unlikely that scores of minority students who are offered admission aren't matriculating. At the same time at my DC's public high school, many of the most talented minority students are applying ED to Spelman and Morehouse. The attitudes on this thread suggest that's a really wise decision. |
+1 If you think what's designed for the public isn't good enough for your kid, you're much more likely to have that mentality than the average public school parent, even if they're wealthy. |
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Can parents who are really bummed at a rejection from an Ivy or UChicago or MIT help me understand why this is such a big deal? Surely you all work with people from a variety of educational backgrounds who have been super successful, and surely most of you have graduate degrees and have seen that those degrees matter more than your undergrad.
Is there some specific career track or life plan that's spoiled by this setback? |
No. Of course not. But these schools are in a position to offer significant financial assistance because of their wealth. For some families, if they can actually get their student in, they could in fact accept the offer. Alternative might be having to decline an offer from an elite but less generous institution due to affordability. |
Do you want to hear my anecdotes about the white boys getting in ED to top colleges despite lackluster credentials because they are athletes, and how their parents bought and paid for years of private coaching, ferried them around on "travel" teams, paid for them to play in all the right tournaments to get exposure to coaches, and then hauled their asses over the finish line by spending thousands on SAT tutors and then writing their essays for them? |
This is a thread about "Big 3" students not getting in. Virtually all Big 3 students are not qualifying for any financial assistance because their families are welathy. |
That may be fair but overall there is significant aid available to many students studying at these top top tier universities which makes them particularly attractive to most, not all families. |
spare me your self-righteous preaching. To 99% of the country, you are the elite. Stop pretending that you're not because you want to clutch your pearls. And if you don't think you've heard the phrase 'compared to your kids, they are extraordinary' at your school it's probably because you use a different formulation of the phrase like "I can't believe X got in, they're so much less qualified then my kid, it must have been because they were a [___________]". I'm sure you'll trot that one out if your kid doesn't get in to some school and you're looking for someone to blame. |
considering 40-50% of students at these schools receive financial aid, I'd be curious to see how the math works on that one. |
It's not the financial aid that is attractive--it is the elite status of the schools. That is the reason people want their kids to go, period. |
Well, consider Harvard: "For families with annual incomes below $65,000, the expected contribution is zero. Families with annual incomes between $65,000 and $150,000 will contribute between 0 and 10 percent of their income. Those with incomes above $150,000 will be asked to pay proportionately more than 10 percent based on their circumstances. Families who have significant assets will be asked to pay more, but home equity and retirement assets are not considered in our assessment of financial need." |
Yeah, I'm sure affordability is what's driving all of this. GMAFB. |
| Suit yourself. Without the significant aid, many less would be interested. Period. |
I don't think you know most of the people at Big3's and what their bank accounts look like. |