Anonymous wrote:Are the majority of kids at Dartmouth so wealthy that it is an uncomfortable place for the poor kids to be?

I have done a bit of research about it but I need more advice.

Would Brown or Cornell be better?

At Dartmouth level schools, it's generally not going to be better. Maybe Notre Dame, Rice, Michigan, MIT.

But I definitely don't think Brown.

Cornell is a big school. So it will be luck of the draw.

Anonymous wrote:It really depends on what you mean by wealth. The kids I know there (I can name a dozen) are all $500K+ income level wealthy but not private jet income wealthy.

Cornell definitely has more middle class kids because it's 3-4 times the size and is just far less preppy/waspy in culture.

My grandma was a first gen low income student at Cornell in the 1930s. Cornell's motto is "any person, any study" with a focus on practical, real world majors in addition to traditional liberal arts and sciences. They make you write an essay about that motto to see if you understand the ethos they strive for. It's a very challenging school but not known to be snobby. That's why fans of the colonial era Ivies sometimes dump on Cornell. It was a different kind of school that was more welcoming of Jewish people, Black people, and women, early on. My mom went to Cornell in the early 60s because other Ivies didn't admit women yet.

My BIL went there and had financial struggles paying for it. And found the academics very tough. But the social life was good. His parents were US immigrants who owned a small business.

Anonymous wrote:I went to Dartmouth and am friends with people whose kids recently went to or are currently attending Dartmouth. As the PP noted above, Dartmouth is not a place where wealth is obvious. Everyone lives in dorms and dresses very casually and the vast majority of students don't have cars. When I was there, I had no idea who had money and who did not, except for the one time when a hallmate was lamenting out loud that she had to fly coach for the first time because all first-class tickets to head home were sold out.

Dartmouth alum here and I agree. The only way I ever knew that a particular classmate came from wealth was when one’s last name matched the name on a building, or if it came up that a parent was a CEO of a large corporation. My parents did not qualify for FA but were civil servants. Lots of my friends did work study and were on FA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the majority of kids at Dartmouth so wealthy that it is an uncomfortable place for the poor kids to be?

I have done a bit of research about it but I need more advice.

Would Brown or Cornell be better?

It does not really matter, as your DD or DS should just go to the best school possible, even if it's uncomfortable.

Anecdote: My DH attended Stanford in the 90's. He was from a poor family, and he qualified for a Pell Grant. He had an OK college experience. (He had read, while he was there, that something like 40% of Stanford students were the son or daughter or a doctor. I am sure that is different now.)

Even though he did not particularly enjoy college at Stanford, it was worth it for him to attend. It has been a substantial boost to his career.

Stanford was weird back then. Before the tech boom.

Stanford was better back then. Before the tech boom.

Find the weird schools today.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s what I like about being not-wealthy at a place like Dartmouth: most socializing takes place on campus and revolves around campus events. Boston is a very long drive away. There isn’t much to buy or do with money on campus. It’s not the most fashionable place because by November everyone just gives up and decides to be warm and dry vs. stylish.

One of my kids was at Dartmouth and one at Yale. Yale was a more challenging place to be not-rich, because there was such easy access to NYC as well as people’s family homes in the tri-state area. Wealth showed more obviously there.

If we could do it all over again, I would choose isolated campuses vs ones near cities and easy transportation, because that dampens the impact of family wealth within the student body.

I know a kid from a working class family who chose Dartmouth over Harvard for this exact reason. There's definitely a segment of the population that is super wealthy (and very bro-y apparently) but it's not that hard to avoid that group and outside of those outliers there's a decent amount of mixing between kids who are from UMC or even higher wealth families (but not like private jet rich) and the kids on finaid. The kid I know was very involved in the theater program and met most of her friends through that. It doesn't sound like money was a huge issue even though I know some of her friends were very well off specifically because, as PP says, the school's setting requires people to mostly just socialize on campus and it's a great equalizer.

My DS is an athlete at Dartmouth, and he is a member of that group, but we're a MC family. Last year, DS went with a few of them on a trip to Argentina during the winter break on a private jet. Almost all of them are from super-wealthy families, except for two poor members, DS and another athlete.

Ask moderator to delete this. Your DS would not appreciate bring discussed here I imagine…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s what I like about being not-wealthy at a place like Dartmouth: most socializing takes place on campus and revolves around campus events. Boston is a very long drive away. There isn’t much to buy or do with money on campus. It’s not the most fashionable place because by November everyone just gives up and decides to be warm and dry vs. stylish.

One of my kids was at Dartmouth and one at Yale. Yale was a more challenging place to be not-rich, because there was such easy access to NYC as well as people’s family homes in the tri-state area. Wealth showed more obviously there.

If we could do it all over again, I would choose isolated campuses vs ones near cities and easy transportation, because that dampens the impact of family wealth within the student body.

I know a kid from a working class family who chose Dartmouth over Harvard for this exact reason. There's definitely a segment of the population that is super wealthy (and very bro-y apparently) but it's not that hard to avoid that group and outside of those outliers there's a decent amount of mixing between kids who are from UMC or even higher wealth families (but not like private jet rich) and the kids on finaid. The kid I know was very involved in the theater program and met most of her friends through that. It doesn't sound like money was a huge issue even though I know some of her friends were very well off specifically because, as PP says, the school's setting requires people to mostly just socialize on campus and it's a great equalizer.

My DS is an athlete at Dartmouth, and he is a member of that group, but we're a MC family. Last year, DS went with a few of them on a trip to Argentina during the winter break on a private jet. Almost all of them are from super-wealthy families, except for two poor members, DS and another athlete.

Anonymous wrote:Here’s what I like about being not-wealthy at a place like Dartmouth: most socializing takes place on campus and revolves around campus events. Boston is a very long drive away. There isn’t much to buy or do with money on campus. It’s not the most fashionable place because by November everyone just gives up and decides to be warm and dry vs. stylish.

One of my kids was at Dartmouth and one at Yale. Yale was a more challenging place to be not-rich, because there was such easy access to NYC as well as people’s family homes in the tri-state area. Wealth showed more obviously there.

If we could do it all over again, I would choose isolated campuses vs ones near cities and easy transportation, because that dampens the impact of family wealth within the student body.

I know a kid from a working class family who chose Dartmouth over Harvard for this exact reason. There's definitely a segment of the population that is super wealthy (and very bro-y apparently) but it's not that hard to avoid that group and outside of those outliers there's a decent amount of mixing between kids who are from UMC or even higher wealth families (but not like private jet rich) and the kids on finaid. The kid I know was very involved in the theater program and met most of her friends through that. It doesn't sound like money was a huge issue even though I know some of her friends were very well off specifically because, as PP says, the school's setting requires people to mostly just socialize on campus and it's a great equalizer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the majority of kids at Dartmouth so wealthy that it is an uncomfortable place for the poor kids to be?

I have done a bit of research about it but I need more advice.

Would Brown or Cornell be better?

It does not really matter, as your DD or DS should just go to the best school possible, even if it's uncomfortable.

Anecdote: My DH attended Stanford in the 90's. He was from a poor family, and he qualified for a Pell Grant. He had an OK college experience. (He had read, while he was there, that something like 40% of Stanford students were the son or daughter or a doctor. I am sure that is different now.)

Even though he did not particularly enjoy college at Stanford, it was worth it for him to attend. It has been a substantial boost to his career.

Stanford was weird back then. Before the tech boom.

Anonymous wrote:Are the majority of kids at Dartmouth so wealthy that it is an uncomfortable place for the poor kids to be?

I have done a bit of research about it but I need more advice.

Would Brown or Cornell be better?

It does not really matter, as your DD or DS should just go to the best school possible, even if it's uncomfortable.

Anecdote: My DH attended Stanford in the 90's. He was from a poor family, and he qualified for a Pell Grant. He had an OK college experience. (He had read, while he was there, that something like 40% of Stanford students were the son or daughter or a doctor. I am sure that is different now.)

Even though he did not particularly enjoy college at Stanford, it was worth it for him to attend. It has been a substantial boost to his career.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to Dartmouth and am friends with people whose kids recently went to or are currently attending Dartmouth. As the PP noted above, Dartmouth is not a place where wealth is obvious. Everyone lives in dorms and dresses very casually and the vast majority of students don't have cars. When I was there, I had no idea who had money and who did not, except for the one time when a hallmate was lamenting out loud that she had to fly coach for the first time because all first-class tickets to head home were sold out.

When you were there, how small were the classes?

Happy to know kids just wear casual clothes.

It's the Southern sorority culture and the Ole Miss and Auburn, etc schools where they wear ridiculously expensive brands and material obsessed. Ivies and New England in general are more 'stealth wealth'. Not flaunting it in your face. In fact, they take pride in not doing that.

Old timey thinking. Have you seen a Colby student lately? It's Ole Miss level status indicators.

Agree. NESCACs now are rich kids flaunting rich indicators, no longer kids maxing out with LLBean and driving the hand me down volvo to college.

How so? (I am a New Englander so kind of surprised to hear!)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to Dartmouth and am friends with people whose kids recently went to or are currently attending Dartmouth. As the PP noted above, Dartmouth is not a place where wealth is obvious. Everyone lives in dorms and dresses very casually and the vast majority of students don't have cars. When I was there, I had no idea who had money and who did not, except for the one time when a hallmate was lamenting out loud that she had to fly coach for the first time because all first-class tickets to head home were sold out.

When you were there, how small were the classes?

Happy to know kids just wear casual clothes.

It's the Southern sorority culture and the Ole Miss and Auburn, etc schools where they wear ridiculously expensive brands and material obsessed. Ivies and New England in general are more 'stealth wealth'. Not flaunting it in your face. In fact, they take pride in not doing that.

Old timey thinking. Have you seen a Colby student lately? It's Ole Miss level status indicators.

I have not. I had no idea!! That's a huge change from back when I was in college.

I graduated a million years ago. A lot of what people said about rural campuses being better is true. But as a lower-middle income kid (not first gen) on financial aid, there were lots of students who just didn’t get it. Studies show that you’ll likely end up with friends of a similar economic background and that was true for me. The wealthier kids (not just 1%) were really unaware of their privilege and didn’t seem to understand that others had to work to cover a lot of our expenses. Perhaps that has changed somewhat. Perhaps not.

My son's friend is there. Middle class family. Loans. He loves it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to Dartmouth and am friends with people whose kids recently went to or are currently attending Dartmouth. As the PP noted above, Dartmouth is not a place where wealth is obvious. Everyone lives in dorms and dresses very casually and the vast majority of students don't have cars. When I was there, I had no idea who had money and who did not, except for the one time when a hallmate was lamenting out loud that she had to fly coach for the first time because all first-class tickets to head home were sold out.

When you were there, how small were the classes?

Happy to know kids just wear casual clothes.

It's the Southern sorority culture and the Ole Miss and Auburn, etc schools where they wear ridiculously expensive brands and material obsessed. Ivies and New England in general are more 'stealth wealth'. Not flaunting it in your face. In fact, they take pride in not doing that.

Old timey thinking. Have you seen a Colby student lately? It's Ole Miss level status indicators.

Agree. NESCACs now are rich kids flaunting rich indicators, no longer kids maxing out with LLBean and driving the hand me down volvo to college.