Preppy colleges

[Anonymous]

University of Denver all day, every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Preppy, like vineyard vines, southern comfort, lilly pulitzer, khakis and polos?

People see that now and assume privilege and racism.

College kids on every campus are in sweats, jeans, and cropped tanks.

I have no idea what you said because you didn’t use complete sentences, but Southern Comfort should not have been in this, and has no place in any preppy convo or thread. C’mon. Southern Comfort?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of us new to US but in the college search...What do you mean preppy?

Preppy became a very popular term and fashion sense in the 1980's. It references prep school (preparatory schools), which are expensive elite private boarding schools that (usually) wealthy old-money people can go to for high school. The stereotypical look is polo shirts, khaki pants, docksider boat shoes. Madras plaid, pastels, Vineyard vines, etc.

I think it now is shorthand for both a fashion look and being elite / wealthy / privileged. It can have the connotation of clean-cut, or it can have the connotation of elitist/privileged.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preppy

[Anonymous]

Haha. Check out the "Are you a preppie" poster designed by Tom Shadyac/UVA.

[Anonymous]

Rollins

[Anonymous]

The original "preppy" schools (i.e., old money, northeast/New England) were the NESCAC colleges and the Ivies. The further away from Freeport, Maine (LL Bean HQ) you got, the less preppy they were.

Don't fight me on this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The original "preppy" schools (i.e., old money, northeast/New England) were the NESCAC colleges and the Ivies. The further away from Freeport, Maine (LL Bean HQ) you got, the less preppy they were.

Don't fight me on this.

Lol! Know what you mean and love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The original "preppy" schools (i.e., old money, northeast/New England) were the NESCAC colleges and the Ivies. The further away from Freeport, Maine (LL Bean HQ) you got, the less preppy they were.

Don't fight me on this.

Lol! Know what you mean and love it.

PP here and an 80s HS graduate. We had kids in our class going to Brown and Columbia and they would argue about which had more preppies. (BTW, Brown by a mile.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this important?

Who cares? Answer the question, or ignore the thread.

Why do you care what I ask?

I am so glad you asked this question.

The OP is posing a question. Maybe she's writing a screenplay and she needs to know where a character should go to college. Maybe she is settling a bet with a friend like, if you ask people what the most preppy college is, X is the first thing they will say. Maybe she knows a child, perhaps her own DC who has a preppy vibe and wants to find college that suits that.

The insistence that OPs explain their life stories, are told their questions are bad questions, are told they are looking at things the wrong way (and these are the best possible consequences)... is what STOPS people from asking questions and seeking help. I do not like that. I like internet boards where people are approached with kindness and openness. People should be able to ask, hey guys what do you think about this, without insecure, critical strangers jumping all over them. Sure, there are are people who ask follow up questions to be more helpful. But what usually happens is finding out a little bit more about an OP just results in shots taken at them. So yeah, I don't like it. I care. I want this to be a place people can turn to for help. Not just the OPs but the many readers who can benefit from reading responses. Every OP, assuming they are humble in their request, should be helped. Not told their kid is a scumbag because he wears polo shirts. Which is what some people here are actually hoping for.

DCUM is the antithesis of one of those boards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of us new to US but in the college search...What do you mean preppy?

And the next poster who also asked "why is this important"

Answer: preppy = evoking prep(private) school attitudes: exclusive, white, privileged, a certain dress and lifestyle

Why is it important? It is not. No college is today is "preppy" in general because of multiple years of diversifying their population. Most elite colleges today recruit the largest balance of their students from public schools and prep schools today themselves are increasingly diverse. You will find your type in all colleges since your class is orders of magnitude bigger (2000-8000) in comparison to your single kid.

Will there be preppy (not used in a derogatory way, it is a valid subgroup) type kids going there? Of course? Will they be an inconsequential minority? Yes.

DS graduated from an actual NE prep boarding school. Even that school was not this.