Is the fervor for getting into 'top schools' fueled by insecurity and inequality?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've said this before. I hire kids out of college (politics/digital/pr) all the time, and I often find that the Ivy league kids tend to be smart and task oriented, but not creative. The Big Ten/etc kids are scrappy and motivated. The small liberal arts college kids have mothers who call me. All things considered, I would send your kids to Michigan, Wisconsin, etc if they have have a tendency to be curious learners.

3 years out of college, it's just a team you put down on your March Madness brackets, and nothing more.

Also, stop calling your kid's boss. It's embarrassing, and makes me regret hiring your kid.

[phone]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a dumb, shitty thread.

Not really. Look at all the posters who prepped their 5-year-olds so they would score high on admissions exams. What's that about? The kid is 5 years old and all the parents can thing about is that pathway to an Ivy. It's really sick.

How do you know if it is "all the parents can thin[k] about?" This is just a thread of people getting indignant over their own lack of cognitive flexibility, much like a lot of DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the intense desire to get into top schools a reflection of society's insecurity and growing SES inequality?

I can't help but sense this is a large part of it.

I don't know but there was an intense desire to get into top schools when I graduated from high school in the late 70's. Course it was easier to get into college then, so many people from my small New England public high school got into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Smith, Wellesley and Vassar. So, whatever it is, it isn't new. But I actually see kids from more varied socioeconomic backgrounds getting into and getting the funding to attend top 25 schools now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've said this before. I hire kids out of college (politics/digital/pr) all the time, and I often find that the Ivy league kids tend to be smart and task oriented, but not creative. The Big Ten/etc kids are scrappy and motivated. The small liberal arts college kids have mothers who call me. All things considered, I would send your kids to Michigan, Wisconsin, etc if they have have a tendency to be curious learners.

3 years out of college, it's just a team you put down on your March Madness brackets, and nothing more.

Also, stop calling your kid's boss. It's embarrassing, and makes me regret hiring your kid.

Oh, God, you're on this thread too. You are so tiresome. We get it that you LOOOOOOOOOVE the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin. Stop the perseveration already. Just snap out of it.

There are just as many of us on here that like to hire students from SLACs. A good job candidate is a good job candidate. Try behavioral interviewing why don't you? And helicopter parents are everywhere.

What makes you think that anyone would listen to the advice of some anonymous poster on DCUM, and who made you the king or queen of college advice? Tut, tut, tut "I would send your kids to Michigan, Wisconsin..." Tut, tut, tut.

[Anonymous]

It is driven by insecurity, but also narcissism. Those parents want to be able to brag about their kid at HYP. To them it means they won the parenting game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the intense desire to get into top schools a reflection of society's insecurity and growing SES inequality?

I can't help but sense this is a large part of it.

I'd say the precise opposite. What used to be the realm of the few is now a possibility to the many, generating that fervor and competition that you didn't see in the "good old days."

[Anonymous]

OP here: By the way, I didn't mean insecurity in the esteem/emotional/psychological sense but in purely the economic sense, especially exacerbated over the last 10-15 years.

The fear of parents feeling that their kids could regress SES wise from the parents' own station.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the intense desire to get into top schools a reflection of society's insecurity and growing SES inequality?

I can't help but sense this is a large part of it.

I'd say the precise opposite. What used to be the realm of the few is now a possibility to the many, generating that fervor and competition that you didn't see in the "good old days."

Good point. In fact it could be an even greater contributing factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is driven by insecurity, but also narcissism. Those parents want to be able to brag about their kid at HYP. To them it means they won the parenting game.

I don't think getting a kid into HYP is braggable. My parents are Asian and tigers (but they never talk about their kids' academic success or failure). Oddly enough because so many of their friends kids did the whole ivy track, my dad was more proud when we showed sports success. Deep down he wished I became a MLB starting Shortstop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it is very elitist for some to say people who want to go to top schools are insecure. People have always gone to the IVYs. Only now that the masses discovered the advantage of going to a top school, it is suddenly the insecure thing to do.

Yes, Sergei Brin went to UMD and Larry Page went to Michigan State and they both went to public school. But the last how many presidents went to either Yale or Harvard? I say, do whatever it is that suits your family and your kdis. But don't judge others for what they want.

I don't think "elitist" means what you think it means, LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've said this before. I hire kids out of college (politics/digital/pr) all the time, and I often find that the Ivy league kids tend to be smart and task oriented, but not creative. The Big Ten/etc kids are scrappy and motivated. The small liberal arts college kids have mothers who call me. All things considered, I would send your kids to Michigan, Wisconsin, etc if they have have a tendency to be curious learners.

3 years out of college, it's just a team you put down on your March Madness brackets, and nothing more.

Also, stop calling your kid's boss. It's embarrassing, and makes me regret hiring your kid.

Oh, God, you're on this thread too. You are so tiresome. We get it that you LOOOOOOOOOVE the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin. Stop the perseveration already. Just snap out of it.

There are just as many of us on here that like to hire students from SLACs. A good job candidate is a good job candidate. Try behavioral interviewing why don't you? And helicopter parents are everywhere.

What makes you think that anyone would listen to the advice of some anonymous poster on DCUM, and who made you the king or queen of college advice? Tut, tut, tut "I would send your kids to Michigan, Wisconsin..." Tut, tut, tut.

It's both obnoxious and inaccurate to suggest that only one poster on this board has been recommending Michigan and Wisconsin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is very elitist for some to say people who want to go to top schools are insecure. People have always gone to the IVYs. Only now that the masses discovered the advantage of going to a top school, it is suddenly the insecure thing to do.

Yes, Sergei Brin went to UMD and Larry Page went to Michigan State and they both went to public school. But the last how many presidents went to either Yale or Harvard? I say, do whatever it is that suits your family and your kdis. But don't judge others for what they want.

I don't think "elitist" means what you think it means, LOL.

Sure it does. Lol back at you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is very elitist for some to say people who want to go to top schools are insecure. People have always gone to the IVYs. Only now that the masses discovered the advantage of going to a top school, it is suddenly the insecure thing to do.

Yes, Sergei Brin went to UMD and Larry Page went to Michigan State and they both went to public school. But the last how many presidents went to either Yale or Harvard? I say, do whatever it is that suits your family and your kdis. But don't judge others for what they want.

I don't think "elitist" means what you think it means, LOL.

Sure it does. Lol back at you.

I have read this exchange. PP could have used "elitist" properly if he's suggesting that the elites/old guard are basically ceding the "top schools" to the unwashed, but academically competitive, masses, and pissing on them on their way out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is driven by insecurity, but also narcissism. Those parents want to be able to brag about their kid at HYP. To them it means they won the parenting game.

I'll just leave this here...backs slowly away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is very elitist for some to say people who want to go to top schools are insecure. People have always gone to the IVYs. Only now that the masses discovered the advantage of going to a top school, it is suddenly the insecure thing to do.

Yes, Sergei Brin went to UMD and Larry Page went to Michigan State and they both went to public school. But the last how many presidents went to either Yale or Harvard? I say, do whatever it is that suits your family and your kdis. But don't judge others for what they want.

I don't think "elitist" means what you think it means, LOL.

Sure it does. Lol back at you.

I have read this exchange. PP could have used "elitist" properly if he's suggesting that the elites/old guard are basically ceding the "top schools" to the unwashed, but academically competitive, masses, and pissing on them on their way out.

I'm not sure what y'all are straining to read. I thought PP's point was fairly clear.