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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Curious about these network effects you think will boost you into a new social class?

I was a poor white kid heading to an Ivy; I didn’t hang out with the super rich kids who spent every weekend on some expensive getaway, or even eating at restaurants, and school nights drinking. I didn’t even have cash to go to a coffee shop or things like that.

I was working late in labs and working 15 hrs for work study job. They majored in history or literature and often had already read the material while at elite high schools, so had a lot more leisure time.

I can see if you are a strong player on a sports team, and networking there, or a hot girl, you can mingle with the upper class, but they weren’t going to be besties with me because I helped them with their laptop!  They stuck to their own circles mostly, and circumstances reinforced that. [/quote]

It is different at elites now and it started changing in the late 90s when more and more aided students and diverse students were admitted. Now well over half are on need based aid, meaning over half have work-study jobs. Even those who are full pay often have research or TA jobs which are paid. White and rich is a distinct minority, and even that group which includes my kid, usually choose to work to build the resume. Outside of athletic teams which are not a large portion of undergrads at ivies, there is a lot of mixing. Those who choose greek or other organizations do not have the Southern-greek dynamics of class division and thousands of $ a semester and focused on new clothing for multiple events. Greek is not needed and when chosen it is very reasonable cost compared to big publics, without the shallow focus.
On campus college-sponsored events are cheap or free; they bring in many high-level speakers in a variety of fields and have large parties/concerts in spring with current artists. Off campus arts have student discounts such as $10-15 tickets.

Your description is more in line with what happens at schools that still have majority full-pay and majority greek, especially smaller schools where athletes are 35% of the student body. [/quote]

Another huge difference these days is start-up culture.  Until the Internet, you just didn’t have students starting companies as undergrads, while now it’s a constant topic among many elite school kids.

There is actually lots of mingling of classes based on talent and money.  My UMC kid has partnered with a super wealthy kid and a kid 100% on FA for a startup.  The super wealthy kid won’t invite the other two to Aspen but understands the founder talents everyone brings.

It’s not uncommon for kids to honestly answer they picked a top school to find their co-founders.[/quote]

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