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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]https://www.princeton.edu/news/2023/09/06/class-2027-arrives-midst-four-year-undergraduate-expansion

2/3 are receiving financial aid (70k on average)

Almost a quarter are Pell Grant recipients (basically poverty line)

It’s nice that Princeton is spending its insane endowment on poor kids who no doubt have a lot of potential but I struggle to believe the school really represents the best of the best still. When you factor in athletes who tend to receive less aid, what percentage is left for extremely bright upper middle class kids who represented the majority of the school a generation ago? 15 percent?[/quote]

I don't know why we care about the extremely bright upper middle class kids who represented the majority a generation ago.

I mean, what do they bring to the table that first gen or just plain middle class don't?  Are you saying the peer group was stronger? I doubt that. Classroom discussions more productive? I doubt that? Opportunities to learn and grow in a residential setting limited? I really doubt that.

I submit that Princeton has FU money and now, finally, can accept the kids they want.

There are a hundred schools happy to take your UMC kid. [/quote]

Op here, speaking from experience, yes I think the kids who had “privileged” upbringings in the sense of parents being very dedicated to their development from day one and exceptional schools are in a sense the best and the brightest. But schools with FU money (who are they saying FU to btw, the very people who built the schools into what they are now?) are deliberately viewing this form of “privilege” as a negative variable when they make admissions decisions. It’s quite counterintuitive. They specifically don’t want kids who are coming to them having been extremely nurtured and well prepared to excel academically. It’s like a Major League Baseball team avoiding the best high school programs when they scout players and just looking for the worst. My contention is, if your selection process entails avoiding the circumstances that produce exceptional kids, you will probably have fewer exceptional kids. [/quote]

Everyone loves to think their analogy makes sense...only to have it slap them in the face.

Maybe it's like the Major Leagues wondering why some of these random players from the Dominican Republic are so good...then going down to the island and seeing how poor they are, and how they are practicing with cardboard strapped to their hands because they can't afford gloves...and then realizing even with little resources, this tiny little island is turning out outstanding players that nobody seems to know about...so now maybe we should set up MLB academies (starting in the early 2000s) in order to invest in these players...and now we are finding players like Juan Soto, Vladmir Guerrero, David Ortiz, Albert Pujols.

Hmm..sounds kind of like what Princeton and other top schools might be doing.[/quote]

+1, this was well said.
Princeton is still taking plenty of people from the best programs too (Exeter and their peers do well at HYP). What is harder for people in the DMV is that we don't have many of the best high school programs at the national level and kids from the burbs here with good test scores and ECs are a dime a dozen.[/quote]

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