Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know which TT school her kids were in? Very surprised that the kids themselves had great experiences with the transition. The comments about leadership opportunities not being meritocratic in private is very concerning.

Horace Mann. I am not very surprise given public school is more diverse and less competitive. They were open about discussing the country club aspect and how they were not a cultural fit. They spent a lot of money on private tutors, so they were going to come out on top in a public school setting compared to private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I just found that the kids who were pressured from the time they were 5 to end up there had no clue how to handle themselves once they got what they’d worked so hard for and a lot ended up adrift longterm.

The cope is always strong. This is so obviously untrue. Why do people think this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I just found that the kids who were pressured from the time they were 5 to end up there had no clue how to handle themselves once they got what they’d worked so hard for and a lot ended up adrift longterm.

The cope is always strong. This is so obviously untrue. Why do people think this?

More than half of my eating club/finals club/yale fraternity is long term un or under employed and make do based on their parents or spouses’ money.

[Anonymous]

We think this because we actually did go to these schools and did actually meet these people who graduated from prep school, matriculated to Ivy and ended up lost. I can always tell someone DID not go to HYP when they think that Horace Mann and Yale are a guaranteed meal ticket. Only someone who hadn’t been on the ground at one of these places could possibly think that.

Horace Mann was my guess, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I just found that the kids who were pressured from the time they were 5 to end up there had no clue how to handle themselves once they got what they’d worked so hard for and a lot ended up adrift longterm.

The cope is always strong. This is so obviously untrue. Why do people think this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We think this because we actually did go to these schools and did actually meet these people who graduated from prep school, matriculated to Ivy and ended up lost. I can always tell someone DID not go to HYP when they think that Horace Mann and Yale are a guaranteed meal ticket. Only someone who hadn’t been on the ground at one of these places could possibly think that.

Horace Mann was my guess, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I just found that the kids who were pressured from the time they were 5 to end up there had no clue how to handle themselves once they got what they’d worked so hard for and a lot ended up adrift longterm.

The cope is always strong. This is so obviously untrue. Why do people think this?

Different HYP poster here and I can confirm, I'd say about 1/3 were HYP-expectation-level successful, 1/3 kind of meh'ed along in decently-paying-but-unsatisfying careers in finance or whatever, and 1/3 failed to launch.

[Anonymous]

There is a kind of parent who didn’t go to an Ivy League or fancy college who isn’t from the city who gets their kid into one of these schools who will then fight to the death to protect the honor of the place that fascinates me as an observer but drives me crazy in real life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We think this because we actually did go to these schools and did actually meet these people who graduated from prep school, matriculated to Ivy and ended up lost. I can always tell someone DID not go to HYP when they think that Horace Mann and Yale are a guaranteed meal ticket. Only someone who hadn’t been on the ground at one of these places could possibly think that.

Horace Mann was my guess, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I just found that the kids who were pressured from the time they were 5 to end up there had no clue how to handle themselves once they got what they’d worked so hard for and a lot ended up adrift longterm.

The cope is always strong. This is so obviously untrue. Why do people think this?

I’m a trin/harvard grad, so i didn’t go to HM or yale. I’ve posted elsewhere about my experience at trin, as well as the way it left me and my classmates oddly prepared for college. Yes, in my experience, a few kids w/ extremely pushy parents did get lost. Same for my sibling’s class (also went to trin and harvard). But many of them didn’t. Most of them didn’t. The vast majority of them didn’t. Many of us have done well despite/bc of being pushed. There’s this weird, kind of fictional arc that people tend to rely on wherein someone was pushed as a kid, then made it to school w/o knowing who they are/what they want, etc., and as a result, struggle or go through depression or become aimless. This isn’t something that actually happens so often though.

My parents didn’t push us, but we wanted to go to good schools so we pushed ourselves. I didn’t enjoy my time at trin, and when i got to harvard, I didn’t really know who i was at all. That’s kind of what college was for though. The vast majority of my friends who went HYPSM - even those who got sidetracked as the result of having some kind of mid-college crisis or left for a time or transferred - have gone on to find something they love or managed to have become successful at something. The work ethic and drive that got you into a top school doesn’t just disappear once you get into college, nor does the desire to achieve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We think this because we actually did go to these schools and did actually meet these people who graduated from prep school, matriculated to Ivy and ended up lost. I can always tell someone DID not go to HYP when they think that Horace Mann and Yale are a guaranteed meal ticket. Only someone who hadn’t been on the ground at one of these places could possibly think that.

Horace Mann was my guess, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I just found that the kids who were pressured from the time they were 5 to end up there had no clue how to handle themselves once they got what they’d worked so hard for and a lot ended up adrift longterm.

The cope is always strong. This is so obviously untrue. Why do people think this?

I’m a trin/harvard grad, so i didn’t go to HM or yale. I’ve posted elsewhere about my experience at trin, as well as the way it left me and my classmates oddly prepared for college. Yes, in my experience, a few kids w/ extremely pushy parents did get lost. Same for my sibling’s class (also went to trin and harvard). But many of them didn’t. Most of them didn’t. The vast majority of them didn’t. Many of us have done well despite/bc of being pushed. There’s this weird, kind of fictional arc that people tend to rely on wherein someone was pushed as a kid, then made it to school w/o knowing who they are/what they want, etc., and as a result, struggle or go through depression or become aimless. This isn’t something that actually happens so often though.

My parents didn’t push us, but we wanted to go to good schools so we pushed ourselves. I didn’t enjoy my time at trin, and when i got to harvard, I didn’t really know who i was at all. That’s kind of what college was for though. The vast majority of my friends who went HYPSM - even those who got sidetracked as the result of having some kind of mid-college crisis or left for a time or transferred - have gone on to find something they love or managed to have become successful at something. The work ethic and drive that got you into a top school doesn’t just disappear once you get into college, nor does the desire to achieve.

*when i said fictional, i meant romanticized.

[Anonymous]

All fair — I think what we are responding to is the very one dimensional take that these
places are a guaranteed meal ticket. I worked like a dog in high school (outside NYC) and was motivated to do it, but I never expected it meant that I was destined for great things. It just meant I might get into a college which might be a boost if I worked hard there and took advantage of the opportunity. There is a mystique to the NYC prep school that you are destined or owed greatness that a lot of parents really start to buy into and instill in their kids. Some of these schools are fantastic, some once were but are now poorly run or mismanaged. All are only really important to the people who attend or send their kids there, but they think of themselves as national brands. I went to a really good prep school outside of NYC, got into one of THOSE colleges and sailed through. I have classmates from that school who didn’t go to one of THOSE colleges who are engineers and very successful people, doctors, math professors and some who aren’t much of much but are happy.

NYC prep schools aren’t a notch above everyone else, but they train the kids to think they are and for some kids, it’s not good for their longterm success. No one is surprised mediocre people graduate from Horace Mann other than people who went to or send their kids to Horace Mann.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starting to question if SHS could be better route...

Best path for unconnected seems to be K-8 at private for the community and transfer to public for HS.

That’s what Mamdani did! Bank Street to Bronx Science to Bowdoin. Seemed to work out for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All fair — I think what we are responding to is the very one dimensional take that these
places are a guaranteed meal ticket. I worked like a dog in high school (outside NYC) and was motivated to do it, but I never expected it meant that I was destined for great things. It just meant I might get into a college which might be a boost if I worked hard there and took advantage of the opportunity. There is a mystique to the NYC prep school that you are destined or owed greatness that a lot of parents really start to buy into and instill in their kids. Some of these schools are fantastic, some once were but are now poorly run or mismanaged. All are only really important to the people who attend or send their kids there, but they think of themselves as national brands. I went to a really good prep school outside of NYC, got into one of THOSE colleges and sailed through. I have classmates from that school who didn’t go to one of THOSE colleges who are engineers and very successful people, doctors, math professors and some who aren’t much of much but are happy.

NYC prep schools aren’t a notch above everyone else, but they train the kids to think they are and for some kids, it’s not good for their longterm success. No one is surprised mediocre people graduate from Horace Mann other than people who went to or send their kids to Horace Mann.

The network you get from a TT in NY is better than any other HS in the country and it’s not close. I went to an Andover Deerfield level boarding school in the last 20 years. Take away financial aid recipients, affirmative action, day students, athletic recruits, and you don’t really have that many classroom aces or daughters of billionaires. TTs are full of them and can carry you through life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starting to question if SHS could be better route...

Best path for unconnected seems to be K-8 at private for the community and transfer to public for HS.

That’s what Mamdani did! Bank Street to Bronx Science to Bowdoin. Seemed to work out for him.

Mamdani is not “unconnected” lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starting to question if SHS could be better route...

Best path for unconnected seems to be K-8 at private for the community and transfer to public for HS.

That’s what Mamdani did! Bank Street to Bronx Science to Bowdoin. Seemed to work out for him.

Mamdani is not “unconnected” lol.

lol, I guess you’re right, he is pretty connected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starting to question if SHS could be better route...

Best path for unconnected seems to be K-8 at private for the community and transfer to public for HS.

That’s what Mamdani did! Bank Street to Bronx Science to Bowdoin. Seemed to work out for him.

Mamdani is not “unconnected” lol.

lol, I guess you’re right, he is pretty connected.

OTOH Columbia rejected him despite the fact that his dad was on the faculty.

[Anonymous]

(Mamdani's educational path has some parallels with Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose dad was also a Big Deal but who also went from a top-tier NYC public high school to a second-tier liberal arts college)