Listing Fancy High School on LinkedIn

[Anonymous]

This thread had a woman lauding APS but attended Sidwell, as identified from her LinkedIn profile.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1091696.page

I’ve seen Palo Alto High School, Deerfield Academy, NCS, all sorts of private high schools.

For the most part, you are admitted to college on your merits (I know that is up for debate) but the high school you attend is 99% the efforts of your parents (even a magnet, since they likely managed the logistics to make you eligible).

I understand if you are a fellow Sidwell alum, it engenders good will to the applicant, but as a poor person growing up it feels gauche to me. But maybe that’s how the world works, looking for people from your class at your IB, PE, law firm….?

[Anonymous]

It's like listing a sorority or fraternity. A lot may assume you are rich brat, but if there's still an old boy's or old girl's wealth club of people who help eachother in the job world, then they want in!

[Anonymous]

I don’t know, OP. My late father was a “scholarship” student and given free tuition at a now-prestigious, boys’ private school during the school’s earliest days. He lived in the inner city and school was a good 18 miles away and of course he didn’t have a car nor was there a school bus.

He was told that if he could get there, education would be free. School administrators figured it was a nice offer and he’d never be able to attend.

He did a combo of walking/hitchhiking and taking a city bus and by junior year, had a classmate who lived nearby with a car. All this said to say, hell yes I’d add Sidwell or any other similar school.

Alumni network is equivalent to most universities.

My mom is from a Midwest public high school that has a huge alumni network offering college scholarships and helping the local community.

[Anonymous]

It’s weird.

[Anonymous]

I would have added the fancy high school to my linkedin profile if I had attended. It is another network. Why not? Don’t be so judgmental.

[Anonymous]

People include their HS for networking purposes/to make it easier for people from HS to find them on LinkedIn. But that doesn't mean it's not gauche, and that is how the world works. It's a kind of reverse affirmative action -- an extra boost because the person is from the same school/class/background as someone else.

[Anonymous]

I once went on a tour of a preschool with my very small children. When I mentioned the town I grew up in / attended high school in, the Principal literally jumped and tried to sign me up as soon as possible. She assumed I was wealthy, having lived in that particular town, but I was not, though I could afford the preschool fees I didn't give huge donations to the preschool like other parents. And the Principal was pissed.

[Anonymous]

One of the things LinkedIn does —quite well — is to facilitate networking. If you’ve had an experience that is a useful point of connection, it makes sense to include that — even if a complete stranger regards this as “gauche”.

Question: Why is including your high school “gauche” but including your college essential? I’m really interested in learning how attending a competitive private HS is “99% the efforts of your parents” — but somehow, magically ? — college and beyond are Not.

Lol: Read through the posts about college admissions on DCUM, and even the affirmative action threads, and help me understand how the same parents that facilitated HS admissions suddenly step back, so that despite legacy admissions, parents writing checks , and stuff like the college admissions cheating scandals that left several parents behind bars, attending college is suddenly about the grit and determination of students.

[Anonymous]

I include everything down to my elementary schools (public) and my private high school. The point is to network. If your school is on there it used to be easier to send invites. Not sure if that is still the case:

Do I put it on there to impress people? Meh. No. It cuts. It’s ways. Some people are impressed and some are not. I will say I would be comfortable hiring anyone from my high school because I would assume there is a very high chance that they are hard workers, good writers, and follow ethics rules (we had an honor code that was very respected).

[Anonymous]

Agree this is just the way the world works. People with privilege want to extend the influence of that privilege as far as it can possibly go. Networking through LinkedIn is a way to do that.

As the hiring manager at my job, I have reviewed resumes that included the candidates’ well-known DMV private schools. It is odd to see in that context.

[Anonymous]

Networking. It's very typical.

The Jesuit high school my spouse attended has been around 200 years and has many very successful alums. There is a ton of networking, more so than the elite college.

I am always amazed that wherever we travel (abroad or in the US) if he or one of my sons is wearing something with the school name or logo, somebody is an alum.

[Anonymous]

OP—clueless about LinkedIn

[Anonymous]

I’m a local. I love to ask where other locals went to schools, even elementary schools, because it is a quick way to zero in to what neighborhood we’re from and I can immediately find common ground.

[Anonymous]

The more achievements people have in their present, the less they feel the need to dredge stuff up from their past.

The person is insecure about what they have going on.

[Anonymous]

It’s LinkedIn. Not a résumé. It would annoy TF out of me if I saw it on a resume. But not on LinkedIn.