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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Many wealthy families sent their kids to tier 1 do not rely on the school for packaging college admission.  They sent their kids to tier 1 for status reason.

Yes, tier 1 school do admit URMs, who did reasonably well in college admission.  [/quote]

Quick rant:

I’m a trinity alum. My brother went to Collegiate until high school, then to Dalton, and my sister went to Dalton, too. With respect, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Everything you said is patently untrue for the vast majority of our student bodies. Do you or your family actually have affiliation with any of these schools?

My family certainly did not have a lot of money - i got 58k financial aid (we only paid between 1-4k per year), without which i wouldn’t have been able to attend. My sister got 45k. My brother left collegiate for dalton after they offered a much more generous financial aid package. This was true across the board for our schools.

Once you’re admitted - obviously after being selected from an enormous pool of applicants through a grueling admissions process - the schools want you to go there. Not for cynical reasons like yield, etc. (ok, sometimes cynical), but because they genuinely believe you’ll make a positive contribution to the school and your classmates. Their admissions teams aren’t greenhorns; they’re seasoned experts. They know how to shape a diverse class of productive, intelligent students. So, since they spend all that time literally sending admissions officers to observe you in your preschool class, they try to ensure that you’ll be able to attend.

They provide a great community and support system once you’re in, and they do everything in their power to help you get into a good school upon graduation. Why wouldn’t they? They benefit as much as the students from admissions statistics. But it’s more than that, too. Their resources allow for tremendous individual. But they also truly care about you. I’m still in touch with my favorite teachers, as are my siblings.

The schools we went to provided unbelievable guidance through the college application process. Each of us wound up at top unis (not humble bragging, just trying to make a point). They helped us recognize, then shore up, the weaknesses in our applications. They gave us advice, direction, and opportunities IN AND OUTSIDE of school to pursue ECs that interested us and added to our CV. They even offered tutoring to help us This was true for my classmates, as well. Rich kids aren’t the only people who can afford to ‘package’ an application, whatever that means.

Finally, the TRULY rich kids - they don’t actually need these schools. We’re not talking run-of-the-mill rich here. These are NYC-public-library-donor-wing rich. And there’s only a handful of them. They’re going to go to one of those schools regardless of how they package themselves. Why? Because they’ll probably live freshman year in a dorm that dons their family name. Which is fine. That’s just the way these things work.

What you’re saying is just a common misconception based on some weird, superficial assumptions. Really, we were just hard-working, ambitious students with strong passions we chose pursue because we loved them, and our school helped us in every way they could. TT schools aren’t’ for everyone, but it’s absurd to simply say rich kids rabble rabble rabble without acknowledging the other 90% of the student body, who also manage somehow, without hundreds of millions of dollars of family money, to get into top colleges, as well.[/quote]

*tremendous individual attention* :wink: [/quote]

You must have gone to Trinity long after I did. Just before my junior year, the long time college counselor left to start his own consulting business (I believe he was one of the first) and they filled his position with a dingbat librarian whose only knowledge of colleges was schools in Texas.
The school was very helpful to the super rich kids and those they deemed stars. Example: I worked on the yearbook staff for four years. When it came time to name the editors in chief, the school selected three of the very top students (who needed some EC padding) none of whom had spent a day on yearbook, by passing us lesser souls. My friend, a billionaire’s son, was put in charge of the annual thanksgiving dinner for the homeless our senior year. His first appearance at it. Again, bypassing lots of other kids who earned that position. 
It was not a nurturing place.[/quote]

Love the use of dingbat. Conjures up long, lost memories of Looney Tunes  :D

Yes, I’ve heard many tales from lesser souls at alumni things; I was definitely a lesser soul, too. What happened to you is so shady and rage-inducing. I will say, though, that many of us lesser souls have done quite well for ourselves long-term. And I never felt slighted or cheated out of something due to my relatively humble (for NYC) background, nor did I feel that other students received more special attention or guidance due to their background. I do feel like I lost out on certain opportunities for merit-based reasons, but I’m not still bitter about it all these years later. I swear…

Obviously all of this is limited to our experiences at Trinity, but there’s been a concerted effort by admin and staff to flatten the privilege curve and provide better care to the student body as a whole. They’re doing a pretty good job. Always more to be done. But yes, things have changed. Take your example: my class at Trinity elected club officers. Generally, they were vets who devoted the most time and effort to them, so the most deserving. There were piggybackers, but that’s never limited to rich kids. Just those covertly Machiavellian borderline sociopaths you get anywhere. I’m sure you know the ones i’m talking about. But teachers, advisors, and administrators mostly stayed away.

I do think there’s a trend across the private/boarding school landscape to make the experience fairer. Except for Deerfield. Deerfield never changes. But my best friend left trinity to go to hotchkiss, and she insists that she was part of the last graduating class of old guard privilege (exclusively white, upper-crusties) before it became actively more egalitarian. It’s probably safe to say that the children of billionaires are going to get special attention no matter where they are, ergo it’s not entirely fair to judge general treatment based on that. There are also only a few billionaire progeny, and in my class, teachers seemed to quietly dislike them. Regardless, it oesn’t excuse your experience, though.

Our college counseling was quite good, but we had more than a single counselor with strong relationships and ties to good unis. You still had to be a bit self-motivated. Did you guys start beginning junior year w/ parents meetings, etc. and have the mandatory college fair events and all that stuff, too? Cause I hated that so much.

The work, though. That was my main issue. The sheer amount of work. Brutal. Like if you said Trinity wasn’t a fun place to go to school, I’d completely agree with you. It could be fun occasionally, but my GOD was it a pressure cooker. However, in my experience it was a nurturing place. I got a great education, made some lifelong friends, went to a great uni, and I’m pretty happy now.

On an entirely different note, my brother and sister loved Dalton. Sometimes I wish I’d gone there, instead.
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