Reply to Why getting into a better college - is a stupid reason to go to a Big 3 / other top private

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]I definitely agree that is you really want to go to an ivy, go to a public in bumfuck nowhere. Top students at a private school, whether in NYc or DC are a dime a dozen. The schools would rather accept a smart, lower middle class kid from no where over a rich, sheltered, tutored kid from a private school.[/quote]

Actually, that's not what I said.  My husband went to a bumfuck rural school and he is brilliant, great test scores, 4.0, valedictorian, super impressive, self-taught advanced classes that his high school didn't offer (self-taught AP chem and advanced math, for example), etc.  He didn't apply to any competitive colleges because he wasn't aware of financial aid opportunities, and his guidance counselors didn't have any advice to give him, and his parents didn't help him out with college so he was scared off by the sticker price.  He applied to the nearest school with instate tuition and an honors program, and that was that.  There were only a couple AP courses offered, no peers who were intellectual challenges to him, no real college counseling office, no test prep, and of the half of his graduating class that actually went to college, all but maybe a couple went to the two nearest in state colleges and most dropped out after freshman year. He also doesn't have a network of peers who went on in professional careers the way I do, growing up upper middle class.  So I think that going to a rural school or an inner city school puts you at a disadvantage...because you have to be a pretty exceptional person in those circumstances to even think to apply to a top college.  Perhaps if you do apply, you are more likely to get in, but my husband didn't even realize that MIT was a top engineering school until he was in college...so there's a matter of awareness that comes with growing up in a metropolitan area upper middle class.  The resources are just not there for lower middle class families.  For upper middle class families, I think if a kid is really Harvard material, whether they go public or private doesn't matter in the least.[/quote]

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