Reply to What is it like to be a family at an elite NWDC Private who can just barely afford it?

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[quote=Anonymous]I was that kid. My parents were upper middle class that skimped on other things to be able to afford one kid's private tuition.

Even at a young age of 10 I developed envy. I wondered why I couldn't get the Barbie house with everything in it, and at at birthday parties I noticed some kids lived in McMansions, with pools, stables, horses, land, tennis courts. The rich kids were not mean or excluded the less wealthy but they still hung out in their own groups.

We moved for my dad's job and parents sent me to public for middle school. I loved it there.

In high school, we had dropped to just middle class. I tested into a private with a heavy emphasis on academics  (think uber competitive like TJ). Maybe because parents' SES influence kid's academics, a lot of kids there were wealthy. The extra privileged high schoolers there were mean, excluded me from things and make fun of me and where our family lived. High school kids asked and knew whst the parents jobs were. There was a class system. They formed study groups by themselves, didn't mingle with the relatively poors. In hindsight maybe I got a taste of the real world out there, how people congregate amongst their own SES. I felt deprived, shunned, inferior. This was not Beverly Hills 90210, it was academics focused TJ type of place wherein your smarts, academics got you more points, and sports or being popular wasn't the main focus of school. Even so, there was a divide and boy did I feel it. The alumni is mostly very successful and maybe my parents hoped I'd make lots of friends who would end up that way, but I have just two friends from that school, both who were way underprivileged comparatively or downright lower middle class. In short, birds of a flock stick together and kids notice. If your child is thick skinned it could work I guess. [/quote]

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