Preppiest colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The term prep / preppy derives from preparatory schools, not WASPs. There are Catholic preparatory schools (Georgetown Prep comes to mind ) and it's hard to argue it's not a "preppy" school.

WASP refers to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Technically this includes the hillbillies of West Virginia as well as the old East Coast Episcopalian / Congregationalist / Presbyterian establishment. I'm aware that WASP was invented by a Philadelphia writer named Digby Baltzell in reference to a stratum of affluent old money Philadelphia families who made up the city's establishment - both Episcopalians and Quakers. The reality is that WASPs were never as so monolithic or rigid a group of people (plenty of old money American families listed in the old social visiting books and members of the various clubs and residents of the preferred areas were of German, Dutch, Danish, Irish heritage - and more commonly a blend of all northern European backgrounds) and the term really referred to a set of values and lifestyle practiced by a particular stratum of Americans.

While Catholics were certainly quietly discriminated against, you also found cases such as old Catholic families like the Carrolls of Maryland, who were "accepted." Or the Creole families of Louisiana. It really came down to how ethnically Catholic you were. (I once knew someone who referred to herself as WASC - white, anglo-saxon Catholic for her family were one of the original Maryland Catholic families, and they'd always been members of the major Baltimore clubs and institutions).

To reiterate, preppy is not so perfectly synonymous with WASP that it cannot be used to refer to people of Catholic backgrounds or, especially these days, non-white backgrounds. Preppy is a lifestyle moniker and has always been (not all graduates of prep schools are "preppies," for example

Well put!
I think people get tripped up by The Preppy Handbook which really should have been called the WASP handbook as it explains WASP culture pretty damn well (even 35 years later!). As a young WASP it was funny for me to see so much of my life in that book. Preppy "culture" has been coopted by many groups but just because you wear a Lily Pulitzer dress while tailgating at a UVA game does not a WASP make. See me when you are drinking G&Ts in Dark Harbor with your roommates from St. Paul's.

[Anonymous]

Hampden-Sydney is hands down the preppiest college in America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read the whole thread so these might be repetitive, but: Princeton, maybe Dartmouth (but it's also pretty outdoorsy), Duke, Georgetown?, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Middlebury (also outdoorsy), Davidson, Hamilton, Trinity in CT, Colgate, UVA, Chapel Hill, BC, Sewanee. There are more, of course, but this is what comes to mind.

Outside of certain segments of the Greek population Chapel Hill isn't that preppy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read the whole thread so these might be repetitive, but: Princeton, maybe Dartmouth (but it's also pretty outdoorsy), Duke, Georgetown?, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Middlebury (also outdoorsy), Davidson, Hamilton, Trinity in CT, Colgate, UVA, Chapel Hill, BC, Sewanee. There are more, of course, but this is what comes to mind.

Outside of certain segments of the Greek population Chapel Hill isn't that preppy.

W&L is missing from this list

[Anonymous]

Miami of Ohio

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The term prep / preppy derives from preparatory schools, not WASPs. There are Catholic preparatory schools (Georgetown Prep comes to mind ) and it's hard to argue it's not a "preppy" school.

WASP refers to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Technically this includes the hillbillies of West Virginia as well as the old East Coast Episcopalian / Congregationalist / Presbyterian establishment. I'm aware that WASP was invented by a Philadelphia writer named Digby Baltzell in reference to a stratum of affluent old money Philadelphia families who made up the city's establishment - both Episcopalians and Quakers. The reality is that WASPs were never as so monolithic or rigid a group of people (plenty of old money American families listed in the old social visiting books and members of the various clubs and residents of the preferred areas were of German, Dutch, Danish, Irish heritage - and more commonly a blend of all northern European backgrounds) and the term really referred to a set of values and lifestyle practiced by a particular stratum of Americans.

While Catholics were certainly quietly discriminated against, you also found cases such as old Catholic families like the Carrolls of Maryland, who were "accepted." Or the Creole families of Louisiana. It really came down to how ethnically Catholic you were. (I once knew someone who referred to herself as WASC - white, anglo-saxon Catholic for her family were one of the original Maryland Catholic families, and they'd always been members of the major Baltimore clubs and institutions).

To reiterate, preppy is not so perfectly synonymous with WASP that it cannot be used to refer to people of Catholic backgrounds or, especially these days, non-white backgrounds. Preppy is a lifestyle moniker and has always been (not all graduates of prep schools are "preppies," for example

Well put!
I think people get tripped up by The Preppy Handbook which really should have been called the WASP handbook as it explains WASP culture pretty damn well (even 35 years later!). As a young WASP it was funny for me to see so much of my life in that book. Preppy "culture" has been coopted by many groups but just because you wear a Lily Pulitzer dress while tailgating at a UVA game does not a WASP make. See me when you are drinking G&Ts in Dark Harbor with your roommates from St. Paul's.

I think these distinctions you make can only be appreciated by people from the Northeast. The rest of the country doesn't have such stringent distinctions of the various types of preppy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hampden-Sydney is hands down the preppiest college in America.

Huh? Never heard of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hampden-Sydney is hands down the preppiest college in America.

Huh? Never heard of it.

That's because you're NOKD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hampden-Sydney is hands down the preppiest college in America.

Huh? Never heard of it.

That's because you're NOKD

+1

Also, Duke isn't really a southern school and isn't that preppy. It's pretty much the Rutgers of the South.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hampden-Sydney is hands down the preppiest college in America.

Huh? Never heard of it.

That's because you're NOKD

+1

Also, Duke isn't really a southern school and isn't that preppy. It's pretty much the Rutgers of the South.

LOL. What southern boarding school did you attend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hampden-Sydney is hands down the preppiest college in America.

Huh? Never heard of it.

That's because you're NOKD

Oh - "preppy" really means couldn't get into a decent college?

[Anonymous]

U.Md

Best lacrosse men's and women's in the country!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Wesleyan grads I know are pretty much the opposite of preppy.

Funny, I always thought it would be preppy. Kind of the place that prep school lacrosse players would go? But I guess my assumption is wrong. What's the true insight.

NP. The Wesleyan grads I know are all in the arts or academia and graduated in fields like theater and English. I know none of them was in a frat or sorority. Not preppy at all. They describe Wesleyan as artsy and funky - certainly they knew and hung out with, as PP puts it, the opposite of preppy.

[Anonymous]

sewanee

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read the whole thread so these might be repetitive, but: Princeton, maybe Dartmouth (but it's also pretty outdoorsy), Duke, Georgetown?, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Middlebury (also outdoorsy), Davidson, Hamilton, Trinity in CT, Colgate, UVA, Chapel Hill, BC, Sewanee. There are more, of course, but this is what comes to mind.

Outside of certain segments of the Greek population Chapel Hill isn't that preppy.

-1000000

Very, very preppy.

-NC native with several UNC graduates in my family