Asian American from NYC here. I grew up with the rich Asians in NY and went to college and grad school with them. I find the Asians in the DMV are not the rich Asian types from Asia. DH and I both come from humble beginnings but now have a seven figure HHI. We live a very UMC lifestyle, nothing like the rich Asians we knew in college. |
The only surprise is that people are surprised. I went to HYP back in the day. (I came from a lower performing public high school. I was the only one from my HS there.)
In contrast, the class was very heavily represented by kids from the most prestigious private schools, both day schools and boarding schools.There were multiple kids from each feeder school, so they all knew each other going in (I knew no one). The wealth was like nothing I have seen before or since. Bold names that you would all recognize. Families with generations of wealth and connections. |
Oh and a ton of representation from NYC area including outer burbs, NJ, Long Island. |
Fencer parent here. Tired of this misimpression. Becoming nationally ranked takes money, but that is also true of a whole lot of sports. Very few colleges have fencing and there are very few spots. With hundreds of kids competing at JO’s per event I assure you this is not a great way to get into college. |
Compare this against tens if not hundreds of thousands of students playing a more common sport like football or basketball. The competition is literally multiple orders of magnitude worse if you’re trying to use them as a backdoor to ivies. To be a recruited athlete for football, basketball, or track you need to be an incredibly talented superhuman who won the genetic lottery. For fencing, squash, or rowing you need to be wealthy and somewhat(but not necessarily extremely) athletically gifted. |
Ha check out central high school in philadephia. looks like half of the class gets into upenn. |
UK is a lot more class conscious than US. |
Nobody anywhere is paying 100k for test prep. |
What’s the point of this?
Yes, private schools get a disproportionate number of their kids in each class into top 20 schools. Who is surprised??? |
JOs require qualification. Most clubs don’t have coaches who can get kids even qualified. I am not saying it’s as competitive as basketball. That is not the point. I am saying the odds are probably worse than the 3-5% of applicants to super selective schools (in which case taking up the sport to get into college doesn’t make sense). |
Harvard's donations are way down this year, several big donations pulled, and last week H resorted to a bond offering. They need to get high wealth donors back. |
Given you didn’t know it’s challenging to qualify for JO’s I also would guess you do not know that American fencers are starting to medal in international tournaments where they are competing in countries where the sport is taken much more seriously, thus attracting naturally talented athletes. It is unfair to criticize athletes in a sport you do not seem to know a lot about. |
+1. this. OP forgets that most of the parents there are highly educated and wealthy. Many of these kids are legacies AND the parents have given significant amounts to their alma maters. |
Does anyone have a link for Spence? |
This whole discussion is full of anger & envy & makes me want to take a hot shower & enroll at Kansas State. |