Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 08:55     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The OP is asking a good question. My kid is a college freshman at an ivy. And I am somewhat shocked by the wealth and spending on campus. After speaking with friends, it seems that most/many colleges today have stratified social scenes that are separated by wealth. Despite hearing that the vast majority of kids get some financial aid, the social kids tend to be the kids with money. And these kids take ubers, dine out daily at nice restaurants, etc. The school is in am urban location, so perhaps there are more places to go/spend? Just want to give other parents a heads up. We heard about umiami expensive clubbing but the reality at my kids school was a surprise.



Same, but my kid is at a rural Ivy. The number of Canada Goose and Moncler coats is insane. Greek Week is in the Caribbean, and 30% of the school participates in Greek life. I know there are many scholarship kids on campus, but none of my kid’s friends work or have issues with money.


Funny thing about these though. Both of my kinds went to HADES schools and are in colleges on this list. We are a VHNW family, and neither of them have coats like that. My hairdresser and her kids do though. I know for a fact (through conversations) that from an income standpoint they are MC.

TL;DR: that's not always the indicator of wealth that people think it is.


Wasp old money ftw.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 08:55     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
Anonymous wrote:Or they buy condos/townhomes and let their kids stay there, and rent out the other 1-2 bedrooms to friends to cover the mortgage payment.


We did this.

Two of my friends' did this with their respective kids as well. If you can, why not? But none of us have mortgages on the properties.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 08:54     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The OP is asking a good question. My kid is a college freshman at an ivy. And I am somewhat shocked by the wealth and spending on campus. After speaking with friends, it seems that most/many colleges today have stratified social scenes that are separated by wealth. Despite hearing that the vast majority of kids get some financial aid, the social kids tend to be the kids with money. And these kids take ubers, dine out daily at nice restaurants, etc. The school is in am urban location, so perhaps there are more places to go/spend? Just want to give other parents a heads up. We heard about umiami expensive clubbing but the reality at my kids school was a surprise.



Same, but my kid is at a rural Ivy. The number of Canada Goose and Moncler coats is insane. Greek Week is in the Caribbean, and 30% of the school participates in Greek life. I know there are many scholarship kids on campus, but none of my kid’s friends work or have issues with money.


Funny thing about these though. Both of my kinds went to HADES schools and are in colleges on this list. We are a VHNW family, and neither of them have coats like that. My hairdresser and her kids do though. I know for a fact (through conversations) that from an income standpoint they are MC.

TL;DR: that's not always the indicator of wealth that people think it is.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 08:43     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
nyu.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 08:37     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
Anonymous wrote:Or they buy condos/townhomes and let their kids stay there, and rent out the other 1-2 bedrooms to friends to cover the mortgage payment.


To be honest, this may not be a bad idea. We thought about it as a possibility. Lots of schools don’t have housing all 4 years, and landlords can be awful in those places.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 08:22     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
Anonymous wrote:My DC is at a top private and I don't think its uncomfortable for MC kids. However, that is the group that is kind of missing. There are lots of full pay, basically half of the class which is typical for all of these schools. Then there is a large portion, probably 1/4 on full aid, the remainder are the middle class kids. Statistically there should be more but I suspect this is the donut hole problem, their parents own houses, have 401k accounts so the amount of aid they are offered isn't enough for many of them to attend.


+1 In any large school, there will a mix of kids. A lot of my friends had campus work-study jobs and ate every night at the dining hall except for the occasional pizza slice off campus. My rich roommate who went to a well-known high school boarding school had friends with fall and spring breaks at houses on Caribbean islands and dinner out at restaurants a lot of nights. Most students will find their group, and my group of not so rich kids with campus jobs became very successful adults.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 08:21     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
Or they buy condos/townhomes and let their kids stay there, and rent out the other 1-2 bedrooms to friends to cover the mortgage payment.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 08:20     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
I have definitely seen parents complain about bathroom sharing. It’s so ridiculous. I shared with no less than 7 other suitemates (more other years) in my 4 years. And I was an only child. Have these children never been to camps? I had gone to Girl Scout camps with one big bathhouse for showers and basically outhouses for toilets. I also attended GT summer programs at some east coast boarding schools (one was at George School!) and we had shared bathrooms there, too.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 07:35     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The OP is asking a good question. My kid is a college freshman at an ivy. And I am somewhat shocked by the wealth and spending on campus. After speaking with friends, it seems that most/many colleges today have stratified social scenes that are separated by wealth. Despite hearing that the vast majority of kids get some financial aid, the social kids tend to be the kids with money. And these kids take ubers, dine out daily at nice restaurants, etc. The school is in am urban location, so perhaps there are more places to go/spend? Just want to give other parents a heads up. We heard about umiami expensive clubbing but the reality at my kids school was a surprise.



Same, but my kid is at a rural Ivy. The number of Canada Goose and Moncler coats is insane. Greek Week is in the Caribbean, and 30% of the school participates in Greek life. I know there are many scholarship kids on campus, but none of my kid’s friends work or have issues with money.


Same at another Ivy. It's not the spring break trips but the massive amount of money spent daily on eating out. So many kids do not eat in dining halls. Ever. They pay the required rooms and board and then buy food for each meal. Dining halls in 2025 are for the poor.


I have heard that dorms, also, are increasingly for the poor. Rich kids pay the fee and sometimes move in but then rent luxury apartments nearby. The breaking point for one girl I know was having to share a bathroom, which she had never done before, not even with her sister.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 07:08     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
This conversation is why I prefer the more remote schools. Being in a small town is leveling in a way that a location with lots of restaurants, etc, can never be.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 05:40     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
Tulane
SMU
Miami
TCU
Bucknell
Richmond
Colby
Wake
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 04:50     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
Anonymous wrote:Emory- not big money or old money but a huge concentration of students whose parents are well-to-do immigrants.

So, not Emory then. Big money is whats being discussed.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 04:47     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
Anonymous wrote:Just look at the high school profiles for the private high schools in this area and other larger metropolitan areas. Most of the profiles will list where the graduates are going to college. You will see the same list of the usual suspects and virtually every profile: second tier privates, like Tulane, Wash U, northeastern, etc. These are all rich kid schools for kids who can’t get into Ivies. And these are the schools you want to avoid.

Washu is T20. Nothing second tier about it.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 03:02     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The OP is asking a good question. My kid is a college freshman at an ivy. And I am somewhat shocked by the wealth and spending on campus. After speaking with friends, it seems that most/many colleges today have stratified social scenes that are separated by wealth. Despite hearing that the vast majority of kids get some financial aid, the social kids tend to be the kids with money. And these kids take ubers, dine out daily at nice restaurants, etc. The school is in am urban location, so perhaps there are more places to go/spend? Just want to give other parents a heads up. We heard about umiami expensive clubbing but the reality at my kids school was a surprise.



Same, but my kid is at a rural Ivy. The number of Canada Goose and Moncler coats is insane. Greek Week is in the Caribbean, and 30% of the school participates in Greek life. I know there are many scholarship kids on campus, but none of my kid’s friends work or have issues with money.


Same at another Ivy. It's not the spring break trips but the massive amount of money spent daily on eating out. So many kids do not eat in dining halls. Ever. They pay the required rooms and board and then buy food for each meal. Dining halls in 2025 are for the poor.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 02:08     Subject: Schools that you think of as rich kid schools. If you’re MC, will your dc fit in?
Anonymous wrote:Hobart for dumb WASPs


This tracks. It was very popular with George School graduates back in my day. My experience with East Coast boarding schools also left me with an answer to this question: no. It's stressful. Maybe it takes a special kind of person not to covet what you will never have, and resent it even. I am not that person. I was miserable.