Does anyone hate how competitive the world has become?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I doubt that asians crossing the southern border is significant. It is more likely for illegal immigrants from asia to enter with some sort of visa and overstay.

The crossing into the Southern border is relatively new and growing faster than any other country except maybe Venezuela. Maybe it’s been tougher to obtain Visas or things are getting rougher in China, I’m not sure.

[Anonymous]

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I was a child of poor Asian immigrants. My parents came here for a better life. Same with DH’s family. DH and I did well in school and professionally. Recently there has been a wave of extremely wealthy Asians. They were not as common when I was a kid. These are people who will buy a $5m home cash without blinking. They have money and brains. So you now have the smart Asian Americans like my kids, the kids of poor Asian immigrants (like me and Dh when we were kids) and now the really smart rich immigrant kids.

So true. Most asian immigrants are wealthy these days. Very different from the 80's/90's.

Not anymore. The former middle class is doing poorly and cannot make enough money to survive. Much like most illegal immigrants.

Here’s an excerpt from an article from Washington Post last month .

“…this is the largest wave of illegal border crossings by Chinese immigrants in history — part of a wider influx that is also bringing record numbers of migrants from South America, India, Turkey and an array of African nations. Many are guided by global smuggling networks that seek to exploit the dysfunctional U.S. asylum system.
U.S. authorities have encountered more than 55,000 Chinese migrants crossing illegally from Mexico during the past 18 months, primarily in the rugged desert mountains east of San Diego — up from 3,813 in 2022. It is the last stage of the journey known in Chinese as zouxian — “walking the line.””

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/interactive/2024/china-migrants-us-border-san-diego-new-york/


Very interesting article on what’s going on in China right now. It doesn’t include information on the ghettos that are still holding Muslims against their will.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It was always competitive, OP. Many countries have had ultra competitive college admissions for generations. Here in America you just didn't realize it because you were part of the privileged. As PP said, in your generation many of the US poor or the US non-whites didn't make it to college. Now it's opened up a lot more, and you're feeling the heat.

It’s not because of US poor or non whites it’s mostly because of foreign elites coming here

This. Foreign elites also affected the housing market.

I was a child of poor Asian immigrants. My parents came here for a better life. Same with DH’s family. DH and I did well in school and professionally. Recently there has been a wave of extremely wealthy Asians. They were not as common when I was a kid. These are people who will buy a $5m home cash without blinking. They have money and brains. So you now have the smart Asian Americans like my kids, the kids of poor Asian immigrants (like me and Dh when we were kids) and now the really smart rich immigrant kids.

There are more and more Chinese illegal immigrants crossing the southern border. According to Homeland Security there was an. 8,000 percent increase in border crossings from March of last year to March of this year. People automatically think brown people when discussing illegal immigrants but Asians are coming to the country illegally too and the numbers are going up.

You think Chinese immigrants are illegally crossing the border and then enrolling their kids into travel sports? Very creative imagination.

This wasn’t about the sports.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I doubt that asians crossing the southern border is significant. It is more likely for illegal immigrants from asia to enter with some sort of visa and overstay.

The crossing into the Southern border is relatively new and growing faster than any other country except maybe Venezuela. Maybe it’s been tougher to obtain Visas or things are getting rougher in China, I’m not sure.

I don’t think the migrants are the ones who are making it more competitive for our children. The children of the parents on work visas for engineering or $1m investment visas are the ones who are adding academic pressure. These kids are not superstar athletes normally. They may outcompete your kid in math or science competitions though.

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Anonymous wrote:It’s because parents are involved. They’ve ruined everything!

And that gets back to the foreign elite test mill culture that has taken root.

Omg it isn’t foreign elites. American parents are doing a fine job ruining sports on their own.

We are "foreign elite" - highly educated immigrants with high HHI. I can tell you that our parenting is changing American parents, I can see it with our American friends. I am talking about very high academic expectations in particular. Like, expectations of excellence in whatever they are doing. Not saying it's the only factor or anything, but there is a real effect there.

I think it's possible that among certain classes, highly competitive parenting styles "imported "from other countries, mostly east Asian and south East Asian, are affecting the culture, and that that has filtered down to the middle class.

I am chagrined about this, like many others on this thread (and it's the point of the OP's post) This emphasis on winning, being better than others at all costs, the pursuit of the highest grades and the best schools – it's toxic and ugly. It's the worst of human nature. There is a reason why depression and suicide rates are sky high in Asian countries. Some adults will say that you're glad that your parents made you play violin 8 hours a day or whatever, but this isn't the life that many of us want for our children.

I'm not blaming the competitive state of parenting today on Asian culture, but I think it is a factor.

The thing is that this is not just Asian culture. It's specifically the culture of elite Asian immigrants to the US. If you think there is pressure in Asian countries to be perfect and succeed then the pressure that wealth and highly educated Asian immigrants are imposing is a finely distilled version of it. And because we are talking about wealthy people with expensive degrees it carries with it a high level of entitlement. The "tiger mom" culture is just this -- we are fundamentally better than other people and will do and pay anything to prove it.

A pursuit of excellence and success isn't inherently bad. But when you mix it in with this superiority that's when it becomes really toxic. We are superior to others because of our success. Also our children must succeed to show how superior we are. There is no way for this not to result in misery for at least some members of the culture. And their misery will then be viewed as a sign of their weakness and inferiority. It's terrifying.

I have no idea why anyone would emulate these cultural beliefs. In the hopes it will result in your kid getting into CalTech and going to work for FANG I guess. It is a really messed up set of values and I urge everyone Asian or not to reject it. This is not the way.

This is incredibly well said

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Yes they may require money but it doesn’t necessarily mean the kids will be good. Are you seriously debating this

Are you kidding? You need money to get good in tennis or golf. Even Francis Tiafoe needs serious training that JTCC provided him for FREE due to his family situation. Scott Scheffler wouldn't be the best golfer in the world had his family was poor.

If you have kid A and B with the same athletic ability, but kid A has wealth and kid B is poor, kid A will come out ahead in athletic because kid A gets the best training money can buy.

No. Kid B will just play a real sport while kid A pretends golf or polo is a sport.

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Anonymous wrote:It depends. My DS made the varsity tennis team at Langley HS as a freshman.

My kid also made the tennis team as a freshman. There is only varsity tennis in fcps. No JV. For your kid and my kid, it doesn’t seem so competitive. For the other 40 kids who came to tryouts and didn’t make the team, they will say it is extremely difficult to make the tennis team.

There is no JV in either golf or tennis in FCPS. They are probably the two most difficult sports due to the small roster size. It is even more difficult in HS such as Langley, Mclean, and Oakton because just about every kid in the tryouts is either from UMC or UC families. Those kids are trained at a very young age, since money is not an issue. The competition to be in the golf or tennis team is ten times worse than the competition in academics.

Wut. As long as you play some tournaments you can make high school team.

Not if you attend any of the schools in a wealthy neighborhood.

Everyone here makes everything about wealth. There is no correlation between wealth and athleticism. Quite a few private schools require students to participate in a sport after school. That doesn’t make them all athletes but it’s a great idea.

Sports like basketball can only take a very few kids. That would be the tall kids who have coordination, hand eye coordination, endurance, fast rubbers, skills necessary to play. This happens in every town.

Agreed. This area in particular has a lot of parents trying to buy their kid a shot, whether it be education or athletics, and then grousing if it doesn’t pan out.

All the private coaching and elite travel in the world provided to pre-pubescent kids won’t mean a thing after the puberty lottery. And it’s fine if you have the resources and inclination to go for it as long as possible, but the kids who play varsity basketball aren’t playing because their parents were wealthy and got them lots of coaching. They’re playing because they’re the superior athletes with the right genetics.

(Golf may be a different story, but of course, golf isn’t a sport, or at least not a sport that requires any particular athletic ability.)

This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Okay. It’s true for these elitist activities you listed which wealthy people call sports because they can’t buy their kid’s way onto the varsity basketball team.

(FWIW tennis and hockey are the only real sports you listed, and hockey is plenty accessible the farther north you go.)

I know someone has posted a study that show elite travel basketball AAU teams are actually high MC and UMC families predominantly.

Nobody in the DMV is playing on any of the good HS basketball teams without playing this AAU circuit (which has the HS coaches, coaching different programs). Also, the best players have been playing since very young…and both their parents are super tall so they know they will hit a decent height when puberty kicks in.

Hockey players all have to play in prep school teams for a 5th year of HS if they want to play college and definitely skews UMC in the US. May be different in Canada.

Football is the one sport without any travel circuit so probably more accessible.

Every one of these elite travel basketball teams has at least one kid who is playing on that team for free (ie bankrolled by the delusional UMC parents). The fact that these teams are “predominantly” comprised of kids from money doesn’t mean a darn thing, other than that the organizations know how to make money. Go figure out what percentage of DMV HS varsity starters are UMC and get back to us.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It depends. My DS made the varsity tennis team at Langley HS as a freshman.

My kid also made the tennis team as a freshman. There is only varsity tennis in fcps. No JV. For your kid and my kid, it doesn’t seem so competitive. For the other 40 kids who came to tryouts and didn’t make the team, they will say it is extremely difficult to make the tennis team.

There is no JV in either golf or tennis in FCPS. They are probably the two most difficult sports due to the small roster size. It is even more difficult in HS such as Langley, Mclean, and Oakton because just about every kid in the tryouts is either from UMC or UC families. Those kids are trained at a very young age, since money is not an issue. The competition to be in the golf or tennis team is ten times worse than the competition in academics.

Wut. As long as you play some tournaments you can make high school team.

Not if you attend any of the schools in a wealthy neighborhood.

Everyone here makes everything about wealth. There is no correlation between wealth and athleticism. Quite a few private schools require students to participate in a sport after school. That doesn’t make them all athletes but it’s a great idea.

Sports like basketball can only take a very few kids. That would be the tall kids who have coordination, hand eye coordination, endurance, fast rubbers, skills necessary to play. This happens in every town.

Agreed. This area in particular has a lot of parents trying to buy their kid a shot, whether it be education or athletics, and then grousing if it doesn’t pan out.

All the private coaching and elite travel in the world provided to pre-pubescent kids won’t mean a thing after the puberty lottery. And it’s fine if you have the resources and inclination to go for it as long as possible, but the kids who play varsity basketball aren’t playing because their parents were wealthy and got them lots of coaching. They’re playing because they’re the superior athletes with the right genetics.

(Golf may be a different story, but of course, golf isn’t a sport, or at least not a sport that requires any particular athletic ability.)

This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Okay. It’s true for these elitist activities you listed which wealthy people call sports because they can’t buy their kid’s way onto the varsity basketball team.

(FWIW tennis and hockey are the only real sports you listed, and hockey is plenty accessible the farther north you go.)

I know someone has posted a study that show elite travel basketball AAU teams are actually high MC and UMC families predominantly.

Nobody in the DMV is playing on any of the good HS basketball teams without playing this AAU circuit (which has the HS coaches, coaching different programs). Also, the best players have been playing since very young…and both their parents are super tall so they know they will hit a decent height when puberty kicks in.

Hockey players all have to play in prep school teams for a 5th year of HS if they want to play college and definitely skews UMC in the US. May be different in Canada.

Football is the one sport without any travel circuit so probably more accessible.

Every one of these elite travel basketball teams has at least one kid who is playing on that team for free (ie bankrolled by the delusional UMC parents). The fact that these teams are “predominantly” comprised of kids from money doesn’t mean a darn thing, other than that the organizations know how to make money. Go figure out what percentage of DMV HS varsity starters are UMC and get back to us.

Even by your silly comment…if 80% of each elite team is UMC and basically 100% of these elite teams are D1 players…well then, you do the math.

It’s clear you don’t know much about elite DMV AAU travel teams and the caliber of player.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:OP’s post makes me think they probably had everything handed to them as they grew up, and does not realize/appreciate it. For those of us that didn’t, it is no harder now than it was for us then. My kid will likely have it better than I did.

I do wish we had a better safety net that would make opting out easier. Obviously if you do not want to be a part of the rat race, maybe you are not owed a SFH in a prone neighborhood, regular restaurant meals, or other trimmings of UMC lifestyle. But you should be able to work a chill regular job or something that gives back to society, and have a safe pleasant place to live, and access to health care. The fact that those things have become so unaffordable has raised the stakes and that is why we see people climbing on top of each other to try and be king of the hill. Progressive policies aren’t necessarily the solution since they tend to throw more money at housing/higher ed/health care, making them even less affordable to those who have to pay their own way.

You can. There are many many parts of the US where you can live a happy and safe life with a decent job, health care insurance, basic public schools, own a home. You just might have to leave DC

Not as many as you think. We are in TX (Austin) and it’s expensive too. My outdated 2k sf house in a decent school district is still well over a million. Everything is very expensive here too.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It depends. My DS made the varsity tennis team at Langley HS as a freshman.

My kid also made the tennis team as a freshman. There is only varsity tennis in fcps. No JV. For your kid and my kid, it doesn’t seem so competitive. For the other 40 kids who came to tryouts and didn’t make the team, they will say it is extremely difficult to make the tennis team.

There is no JV in either golf or tennis in FCPS. They are probably the two most difficult sports due to the small roster size. It is even more difficult in HS such as Langley, Mclean, and Oakton because just about every kid in the tryouts is either from UMC or UC families. Those kids are trained at a very young age, since money is not an issue. The competition to be in the golf or tennis team is ten times worse than the competition in academics.

Wut. As long as you play some tournaments you can make high school team.

Not if you attend any of the schools in a wealthy neighborhood.

Everyone here makes everything about wealth. There is no correlation between wealth and athleticism. Quite a few private schools require students to participate in a sport after school. That doesn’t make them all athletes but it’s a great idea.

Sports like basketball can only take a very few kids. That would be the tall kids who have coordination, hand eye coordination, endurance, fast rubbers, skills necessary to play. This happens in every town.

Agreed. This area in particular has a lot of parents trying to buy their kid a shot, whether it be education or athletics, and then grousing if it doesn’t pan out.

All the private coaching and elite travel in the world provided to pre-pubescent kids won’t mean a thing after the puberty lottery. And it’s fine if you have the resources and inclination to go for it as long as possible, but the kids who play varsity basketball aren’t playing because their parents were wealthy and got them lots of coaching. They’re playing because they’re the superior athletes with the right genetics.

(Golf may be a different story, but of course, golf isn’t a sport, or at least not a sport that requires any particular athletic ability.)

This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Okay. It’s true for these elitist activities you listed which wealthy people call sports because they can’t buy their kid’s way onto the varsity basketball team.

(FWIW tennis and hockey are the only real sports you listed, and hockey is plenty accessible the farther north you go.)

I know someone has posted a study that show elite travel basketball AAU teams are actually high MC and UMC families predominantly.

Nobody in the DMV is playing on any of the good HS basketball teams without playing this AAU circuit (which has the HS coaches, coaching different programs). Also, the best players have been playing since very young…and both their parents are super tall so they know they will hit a decent height when puberty kicks in.

Hockey players all have to play in prep school teams for a 5th year of HS if they want to play college and definitely skews UMC in the US. May be different in Canada.

Football is the one sport without any travel circuit so probably more accessible.

Every one of these elite travel basketball teams has at least one kid who is playing on that team for free (ie bankrolled by the delusional UMC parents). The fact that these teams are “predominantly” comprised of kids from money doesn’t mean a darn thing, other than that the organizations know how to make money. Go figure out what percentage of DMV HS varsity starters are UMC and get back to us.

Even by your silly comment…if 80% of each elite team is UMC and basically 100% of these elite teams are D1 players…well then, you do the math.

It’s clear you don’t know much about elite DMV AAU travel teams and the caliber of player.

LOL

What percentage of NBA players are UMC DMV elites? You’re the perfect example of a delusional rich parent who thinks money is the end all be all even when it comes to sports.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I have a kid who makes it look easy. He always makes the team and excels academically. He is hoping for an ivy.

I have another kid who is borderline good at everything and a third kid who is too young to tell. Not everyone will go to a T20 college and that is ok. My middle kid will probably go to a school like BU or Penn State. Your kid can go there too.

One of the problems is that your references to “BU and Penn State” are still top 60 colleges out of 3000…BU has a 14.4% acceptance rate…so no, most kids can’t “go there too”.

Everyone’s frame of reference is completely skewed. So, when you say not everyone will go to a top 20, you turn around and still only think top 50ish schools are worthwhile.

Agree with this! LOL. This lady feels like BU is slumming it but it's crazy hard to get into. Frankly almost as hard as several of the Ivies.
This area (DC) is so insane.

Pp here. My oldest is in high school. My middle kid is only in middle school. I have been looking at acceptance rates and my oldest is looking at all colleges with sub 10% acceptance rates and I’m confident he will get in.

My 7th grader has a lot of time. From our high school, it looks like BU is around 25-30% acceptance and Penn state is higher than 50%. BU is my oldest kid’s safety.

Seems like you are completely missing the point of the thread...or I gather you are fine with the competitive nature of the DMV.

I was feeling nervous from reading these threads about high stat kids getting rejected. In actuality, a lot of kids get into good schools. I mean if your kid has a 3.0, no but if your kid has almost straight As with rigor, 1500+ SAT and good extracurricular activities (not just sports), your kid should get into a T50.

Folks...this is lunacy...only the top 1% of all HS students score 1500+ on the SAT. There are several schools in the T50 where you can get accepted with stats much less than this (with basically no ECs)...and many in the top 100.

I was referencing my older child. I have no idea what my middle and younger child will be like in a few years.

Yes, it is hard to make sports teams. It is hard to get into a competitive college. There are plenty of average colleges and average people in the world. Many government workers went to no brand schools. You can become a nurse at any state school. The majority of the world is average.

WTF are you even talking about? You mentioned that it takes these incredible scores to get into a Top 50...it was then pointed out that there are several Top 50 schools where you don't need these scores...now it seems the Top 50 schools where those scores are not needed are "average colleges", I guess because they aren't as selective as you like?

There is more than one person posting. I am simply saying that there is a school for everyone. I should not have written BU or Northeastern. I know that depending on the family, these schools are out of reach. My oldest would be disappointed with these schools as well as UVA. I am very well aware that acceptance rates are low.

I don’t know anyone in real life who talks about or really wants to go to BU or Northeastern. I only read about it on these boards. We do know many people who shoot for Ivy+ other T30 schools and they all end up at decent schools with Elon, VT and Santa Clara type schools being at the bottom.

This is really area dependent. We live in TX in a rich area. We are the poor ones with a $600k HH income. Average HHI is 7 figures and most people went to state schools like Texas and A+M. Trust funds and business owners or C level execs. The ivy league doctors and engineers are the more average and middle class people in the area. People don’t really care about their kids going to top ranked schools. A solid school, yes but very few even try to go to the super competitive ones. Northwestern and BU would be considered pretty elite and impressive in our area.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I went to an Ivy League college and I used to interview for the school, but I stopped wasting my time when no one I interviewed ever got in. At least from that, I knew since my kids’ births that elite college admissions was a total crapshoot.

Sports - my oldest is doing great in HS in no cut activities - marching band and crew. I think the important thing is to be a joiner and get involved in literally anything you can enjoy.

College - maybe we are thinking VT or Penn State is more likely than UVA. I think grad school is the new college. I think my kids will likely go to grad school and that will help.

Work - I am honestly not that impressed with the younger people at work these days. I still think there is still a place for people to succeed who are dependable, responsive, and who take initiative to do the hard work.

I have good older role models. My grandmother lived in the same small un-updated ranch house from 1960-2023. You do NOT need a McMansion to be happy. You need to use something like YNAB / Ramit Sethi and take responsibility for your own finances and live within your means.

I don't really understand this mentality. There are tons of underemployed grad school graduates with really massive student loan debt. There are plenty of VT graduates doing well as engineers or other STEM fields, or working for Accenture, etc. Same for Penn State.

I’ve said this to someone else on here before - but my engineer dad has a masters. My spouse is a teacher and gets paid more with a masters. Most of my peers are employed and have graduate degrees. It’s not imperative but I think can be helpful in most fields if you do it right. But you don’t have to agree with me!

If I am not mistaken, a teacher gets an automatic pay bump for having a graduate degree...so, if you become a teacher you would of course go do that. There are similar government jobs that work this way as well.

However, even your examples are a far cry from "grad school is the new college", and you just have anecdotes. To this day, most CEOs (over 50%) have nothing more than a BA/BS.

Some people value education. Others don’t. It is fine if you don’t. I personally think it is the easiest and fastest way to guarantee yourself a six figure income. I earned 200k+ out of grad school at age 27 and that 20 years ago.

That's a silly argument...law school isn't "education", it's vocational training...getting an MBA isn't "education", it's again vocational training and networking.

You even don't seem to value education as you described it as the "easiest and fastest way to guarantee yourself a six-figure income".

You sound dumb. I’m sure we don’t travel in the same circles.

You sound downright moronic. We probably don't because my circle includes CEOs, P/E principals, investment bank co-founders...just my little circle of successful folks without graduate degrees.

Right back at you. The investment bankers, PE, VC people we know mostly all have ivy mbas. I dont know what kind of crap IB cofounders you know.

The rich ones? You know you can’t win this game right, when the actual richest people in the country (vs your fictional friends) don’t have graduate degrees…and many don’t even have college degrees.

I don’t even know why I am wasting time with some random person on the internet. I’m very proud of my ivy degrees. DH had to work hard for his Ivy MD education. That is fine if you don’t value these but we do. My dad was a professor and has 4 degrees.

We are getting older and I don’t really care much about anything anymore. I don’t put pressure on our kids. I really don’t care about your rich friends or mine. My kids are smart and can compete in a highly competitive environment. Most people we socialize with went to grad school and my kids want to attend top colleges. It is fine if you didn’t or don’t want your kids to go to a top college and grad school.

NP. But why are you making these weird flexes? I promise you, there are a lot of doctors making equal or more than your DH that never went to Ivy schools. In fact, most Ivy degree doctors work in academia/research and don’t make very much at all.

This thread is about competition from a young age. Competition includes education. Many people would choose the better college or grad school given the opportunity. If a kid can go to Yale law vs GW, s/he would choose Yale. I’m not sure why people often knock down elite schools. I see the same for private schools like STA, NCS, Sidwell, etc. If is fine if you don’t want this for your children or simply can’t afford it. You don’t have to put others down for it though.

But elite school does not equal higher paying job, not even close. I know many Ivy grads making middle class wages for DC area. I know many no name state university grads making 7 figures.

On average, an ivy grad is much wealthier. They started rich though. Top 1% is much more likely to get accepted into an ivy, more likely being at top .1%.

Yes, seriously. Have you seen the NY Times model of upward income mobility? It compares all the schools and tracks people after too. Something like 30 percent of ivy league students are born in the top 1-2 percent. Your kid isn’t that special if they were born on home base and went to an ivy.

[Anonymous]

Almost all of my neighbors in Langley are Asians with 7,000 sqft houses, and they don't even full-time in them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys are crazy if you think this is just the DMV. Every rich suburban area in the US is like this any more. My cousins in ~Tulsa OK~ are living the country club, travel sport, Euro vacay lifestyle.

Agreed!

I think DC differs being snobbier about academics/school ranking. My area is more competitive with extracurriculars.

I like a PP’s comment about EQ. I have young kids in a super rich area and they simply will not be able to compete with some of the kids in academics. I can already see this. They are both naturally athletic but even that I wonder with so much money and other families spending on private year round coaching. I want do really push the social/EQ which are their gifts and give them some real life skills like investing, personal finance, relationships, etc.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends. My DS made the varsity tennis team at Langley HS as a freshman.

My kid also made the tennis team as a freshman. There is only varsity tennis in fcps. No JV. For your kid and my kid, it doesn’t seem so competitive. For the other 40 kids who came to tryouts and didn’t make the team, they will say it is extremely difficult to make the tennis team.

There is no JV in either golf or tennis in FCPS. They are probably the two most difficult sports due to the small roster size. It is even more difficult in HS such as Langley, Mclean, and Oakton because just about every kid in the tryouts is either from UMC or UC families. Those kids are trained at a very young age, since money is not an issue. The competition to be in the golf or tennis team is ten times worse than the competition in academics.

Wut. As long as you play some tournaments you can make high school team.

Not if you attend any of the schools in a wealthy neighborhood.

Everyone here makes everything about wealth. There is no correlation between wealth and athleticism. Quite a few private schools require students to participate in a sport after school. That doesn’t make them all athletes but it’s a great idea.

Sports like basketball can only take a very few kids. That would be the tall kids who have coordination, hand eye coordination, endurance, fast rubbers, skills necessary to play. This happens in every town.

Agreed. This area in particular has a lot of parents trying to buy their kid a shot, whether it be education or athletics, and then grousing if it doesn’t pan out.

All the private coaching and elite travel in the world provided to pre-pubescent kids won’t mean a thing after the puberty lottery. And it’s fine if you have the resources and inclination to go for it as long as possible, but the kids who play varsity basketball aren’t playing because their parents were wealthy and got them lots of coaching. They’re playing because they’re the superior athletes with the right genetics.

(Golf may be a different story, but of course, golf isn’t a sport, or at least not a sport that requires any particular athletic ability.)

This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Okay. It’s true for these elitist activities you listed which wealthy people call sports because they can’t buy their kid’s way onto the varsity basketball team.

(FWIW tennis and hockey are the only real sports you listed, and hockey is plenty accessible the farther north you go.)

I know someone has posted a study that show elite travel basketball AAU teams are actually high MC and UMC families predominantly.

Nobody in the DMV is playing on any of the good HS basketball teams without playing this AAU circuit (which has the HS coaches, coaching different programs). Also, the best players have been playing since very young…and both their parents are super tall so they know they will hit a decent height when puberty kicks in.

Hockey players all have to play in prep school teams for a 5th year of HS if they want to play college and definitely skews UMC in the US. May be different in Canada.

Football is the one sport without any travel circuit so probably more accessible.

Every one of these elite travel basketball teams has at least one kid who is playing on that team for free (ie bankrolled by the delusional UMC parents). The fact that these teams are “predominantly” comprised of kids from money doesn’t mean a darn thing, other than that the organizations know how to make money. Go figure out what percentage of DMV HS varsity starters are UMC and get back to us.

Even by your silly comment…if 80% of each elite team is UMC and basically 100% of these elite teams are D1 players…well then, you do the math.

It’s clear you don’t know much about elite DMV AAU travel teams and the caliber of player.

LOL

What percentage of NBA players are UMC DMV elites? You’re the perfect example of a delusional rich parent who thinks money is the end all be all even when it comes to sports.

Yeah this guy is a pathetic clown