Do other students benefit from the overrepresentation of the wealthiest 0.1% at T20s and top SLACs?

[Anonymous]

The kids from the highest and lowest socioeconomic groups dont mix.

There's some discussion if affinity groups help or hurt in this area. There have been books and research on "the black table" phenomenon, and affinity groups institutionalize that. Almost all research says this largely helpful (also living-learning communities), but it does stop some mixing. If it was ever going to happen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to one of the schools that’s renowned for having the offspring of billionaires and celebrities. We’re UMC so don’t run in those circles. My sense is most of those kids keep to themselves and don’t slum it with students who don’t go to St. Barts for Christmas. There’s a whole NYC private school world that is pretty self-contained and they kind of stick to themselves. So I don’t think they add any value to the college experience. But they are more likely to be big donors to the school and have the connections for internships, which makes them useful for a college.

To the school yes. Internships, no. The whole capitals are pouring into AI not human.

[Anonymous]

UMC is just MC. They don't mix w 0.1%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UMC is just MC. They don't mix w 0.1%

And they don't mix with the LMC. Of course there are exceptions and no one is crying for any of these kids. They are all mostly super bright and hard-working and are getting a top level education if they work at it. They have lots of advantages going forward. But plenty of things on campus are largely stratified socioeconomically just like they are everywhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid at an Ivy says that the 20-30 kids from Andover/Exeter/Choate/Groton etc all merged friend groups and only keep to themselves.

Sorry but your kid doesn't know that and if they did they'd have no reason to tell you. Why just make stuff up?

NP here. My freshman ivy kid says the uber wealthy private/boarding school crowd largely sticks together, dominated by nyc/la and wealthy internationals. Likely easier for a boy to mix in- but harder for a girl since outward signs of affluence/fitting in (branded clothes, designer jewelry, etc is not accessible to most. My kid's roommate is a wealthy international girl with homes in multiple countries. They get along very well as roommates but my kid is never included/invited to the roommate's social outings. We are a full pay mc/umc family (not high income but saved for a long time) and my kid is pretty much shut out of that group. My kid also does not have an unlimited budget to keep up. They dont use the mandatory meal plan (eat out or doordash every day) , some have services clean dorm rooms, weekends away with top tix to concerts/sporting events. its a different world from ours. Those same tippy top kids are also set up with internships via parent connections, etc. They are smart kids, but very privileged and cliquey.

[Anonymous]

Like another PP, we're UMC/high income, (nice house, routine international travel, no money concerns for college) but we tend to live below our means and our D is into outdoorsy pursuits. We just finished visiting the top-10 LAC she will attend for admitted students' day, and I noticed the small indicators of class that came up when talking with parents from around the country (mentions of multiple homes, vacation story swapping, private school name-dropping). It was subtle, but there. Our D is outgoing and ended up really connecting with a group of about 6 kids during the visit and spending the whole weekend with them. As she described them to me later I realized that it was a pretty mixed group socioeconomically - some were kids of the parents with the many homes, another two were on "full rides" (this was said admiringly to me from my D who concluded that they must be "really smart" without awareness that the school does not give merit money). Are any of these kids in the top .1%? Probably not, but they are from a much broader SES range than that of her current high school friend group. I'm really hoping that the rural location of the college and fewer opportunities for daily spending in restaurants, etc. allows this mixing to continue. Whether these friendships confer later advantages or not, getting to know people from different walks of life seems like a valuable and mutually beneficial experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMC is just MC. They don't mix w 0.1%

And they don't mix with the LMC. Of course there are exceptions and no one is crying for any of these kids. They are all mostly super bright and hard-working and are getting a top level education if they work at it. They have lots of advantages going forward. But plenty of things on campus are largely stratified socioeconomically just like they are everywhere else.

Answering OP's question - re. Title Do other students benefit from the overrepresentation of the wealthiest 0.1% at T20s and top SLACs?

[Anonymous]

PP. Just find it ironic that what makes UMC think they are different MC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid at an Ivy says that the 20-30 kids from Andover/Exeter/Choate/Groton etc all merged friend groups and only keep to themselves.

Sorry but your kid doesn't know that and if they did they'd have no reason to tell you. Why just make stuff up?

NP here. My freshman ivy kid says the uber wealthy private/boarding school crowd largely sticks together, dominated by nyc/la and wealthy internationals. Likely easier for a boy to mix in- but harder for a girl since outward signs of affluence/fitting in (branded clothes, designer jewelry, etc is not accessible to most. My kid's roommate is a wealthy international girl with homes in multiple countries. They get along very well as roommates but my kid is never included/invited to the roommate's social outings. We are a full pay mc/umc family (not high income but saved for a long time) and my kid is pretty much shut out of that group. My kid also does not have an unlimited budget to keep up. They dont use the mandatory meal plan (eat out or doordash every day) , some have services clean dorm rooms, weekends away with top tix to concerts/sporting events. its a different world from ours. Those same tippy top kids are also set up with internships via parent connections, etc. They are smart kids, but very privileged and cliquey.

Lots of good intel about these groups here:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/345/1126674.page

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1297799.page

[Anonymous]

It certainly helps raise the bar on what entitled aholes are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid at an Ivy says that the 20-30 kids from Andover/Exeter/Choate/Groton etc all merged friend groups and only keep to themselves.

Sorry but your kid doesn't know that and if they did they'd have no reason to tell you. Why just make stuff up?

NP here. My freshman ivy kid says the uber wealthy private/boarding school crowd largely sticks together, dominated by nyc/la and wealthy internationals. Likely easier for a boy to mix in- but harder for a girl since outward signs of affluence/fitting in (branded clothes, designer jewelry, etc is not accessible to most. My kid's roommate is a wealthy international girl with homes in multiple countries. They get along very well as roommates but my kid is never included/invited to the roommate's social outings. We are a full pay mc/umc family (not high income but saved for a long time) and my kid is pretty much shut out of that group. My kid also does not have an unlimited budget to keep up. They dont use the mandatory meal plan (eat out or doordash every day) , some have services clean dorm rooms, weekends away with top tix to concerts/sporting events. its a different world from ours. Those same tippy top kids are also set up with internships via parent connections, etc. They are smart kids, but very privileged and cliquey.

Maybe at the Ivies but I haven’t seen this behavior at either of the top SLACs which my kids attend. Both kids have friend groups with wide SES distribution including families far wealthier than ours which is top 0.3% or so. Some families are on full aid and one has connections to European royalty. Everybody does their own laundry, and everyone eats in the same dining halls daily. They all ski together and hang out seamlessly. Spring breaks have been a bit different but nobody has jetted off on a private plane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Athlete moms will be quick saying yes they do. They think their athlete kids are just soooo attractive that all the nepo kids are dying to hang out with them.

I think you are undercounting the amount of overlap. Of my daughter's 6 person recruiting class. 2 are top percentile, 3 are top decile and the last is top quartile in terms of income and/or wealth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to be blunt but do you hang out with people much lower income than you?

OP here, fair question. My job is high income, but I often interact with lower income coworkers throughout the course of the day - spending hours with them at a time so I do meet many lower income folks. I do have friends and socialize with lower income and higher income groups, but there is not much overlap between the two.

My experience at one of these institutions was that the truly wealthy can often afford to major in subjects that don’t directly map into or lead to employment (art history, philosophy, “semiotics “) while us regular people majored in Econ cuz we needed a job. Not a lot of overlap between the art history and Econ majors.

Who told you that Econ was a path to gainful employment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This topic comes up on here periodically. I went to an elite Ivy 30 years ago and the same phenomena existed back then. There were the very rich kids and they were insular to themselves. And there's also cliques within that world too. My own cohort was the nice UMC kids from day schools or high performing public schools in affluent suburbs, and we overlapped a bit with a Park Ave/boarding school cohort. They were nice enough and we were friendly, but it was also always clear who they were and who we were. And then there was even another level of wealth above them. Jet setters, famous last names like Rockefeller or Rothschild, kids of famous actors. They were entirely unto themselves.

After graduation, all that went away. The Park Avenue kids retreated to their own world. The super rich went back to being totally invisible. The same will happen to your kids too, whatever friendships they may form in college.

I will add that I flew back from a work trip to London a few weeks back and in front of me in the boarding queue at the airport was a small group of very groomed college girls. And I couldn't help but notice one transfer $7,000 to another's bank account on her phone and it was for a trip of some sort. And I had flashbacks to my own college days and had to laugh. Rich girls are always rich girls.

A wise rich client of mine put it best. He asked me "do you know what is better than being rich and famous? Being rich and not famous."

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]UMC is just MC. They don't mix w 0.1%[/quote]

And they don't mix with the LMC. Of course there are exceptions and no one is crying for any of these kids. They are all mostly super bright and hard-working and are getting a top level education if they work at it. They have lots of advantages going forward. But plenty of things on campus are largely stratified socioeconomically just like they are everywhere else.[/quote]

Answering OP's question - re. Title Do other students benefit from the overrepresentation of [b]the wealthiest 0.1% at T20s[/b] and top SLACs? [/quote]

Top 0.1% by income is about $2.8 million. By wealth, more than 10x that. The former are well off but their kids will need to work to keep up that status. The latter won't. Your kids will mix just fine with the top income kids. Top wealth kids are mostly in a different world.