Anonymous wrote:That preppy & privileged feel is fading significantly at Princeton. My DS says that it only really exists with the athletes & legacies at the eating clubs. Otherwise, Princeton heavily favors and targets underprivileged kids for admission.

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Anonymous wrote:USC, NYU, BU

Good catch with BU. NYU is actually a bit more socioeconomically diverse than BU.

But OP didn't ask what school just have rich kids, she asked what schools have "preppy, upper crust privileged" kids.

USC, NYU, BU, UMiami, and Tulane, while attracting rich kids, do not attract preppy, upper crust privileged kids.

Anonymous wrote:God Tier

Princeton University
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Stanford University
Yale University

S Tier


University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Dartmouth College
Columbia University
Brown University


A Tier

University of Chicago
Cornell University
Northwestern University
Georgetown University
Vanderbilt University
Washington University in St. Louis

MIT is a lot of things but it's not the school of privilege.

Anonymous wrote:What schools have that preppy, upper crust privileged feel. I know people say UVA, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Princeton. Elaborate on it a little more if you have experience at those schools.

Anonymous wrote:What schools have that preppy, upper crust privileged feel. I know people say UVA, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Princeton. Elaborate on it a little more if you have experience at those schools.

Anonymous wrote:What schools have that preppy, upper crust privileged feel. I know people say UVA, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Princeton. Elaborate on it a little more if you have experience at those schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That preppy & privileged feel is fading significantly at Princeton. My DS says that it only really exists with the athletes & legacies at the eating clubs. Otherwise, Princeton heavily favors and targets underprivileged kids for admission.

Same at Dartmouth. My child is a freshman. There are wealthy boarding school kids but 30% of the students pay nothing.
There are a ton of FGLI, etc kids. The downside is that the students are underprepared. My smart but not a superstar kid finds it super easy and is on the second trimester of 99% or something ridiculous in all courses (has accelerated the rigor when able but a lot of classes have been required).

No offense, but in both cases involving underprepared students, do schools end up lowering academic standards just to ensure students pass?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That preppy & privileged feel is fading significantly at Princeton. My DS says that it only really exists with the athletes & legacies at the eating clubs. Otherwise, Princeton heavily favors and targets underprivileged kids for admission.

Same at Dartmouth. My child is a freshman. There are wealthy boarding school kids but 30% of the students pay nothing.
There are a ton of FGLI, etc kids. The downside is that the students are underprepared. My smart but not a superstar kid finds it super easy and is on the second trimester of 99% or something ridiculous in all courses (has accelerated the rigor when able but a lot of classes have been required).

Is your freshman at Dartmouth taking STEM courses? Which ones? I'm surprised academics are that easy now/

Dude, it's fiction

Yeah this person is a troll. My DS is a junior there, and there are enforced medians of B/B+ in many classes. There are certainly classes that are known as being easier than others (this is true at every college), but I think it's a gross exaggeration to say that students are unprepared and that it's 'super easy'.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That preppy & privileged feel is fading significantly at Princeton. My DS says that it only really exists with the athletes & legacies at the eating clubs. Otherwise, Princeton heavily favors and targets underprivileged kids for admission.

Same at Dartmouth. My child is a freshman. There are wealthy boarding school kids but 30% of the students pay nothing.
There are a ton of FGLI, etc kids. The downside is that the students are underprepared. My smart but not a superstar kid finds it super easy and is on the second trimester of 99% or something ridiculous in all courses (has accelerated the rigor when able but a lot of classes have been required).

Is your freshman at Dartmouth taking STEM courses? Which ones? I'm surprised academics are that easy now/

Dude, it's fiction

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That preppy & privileged feel is fading significantly at Princeton. My DS says that it only really exists with the athletes & legacies at the eating clubs. Otherwise, Princeton heavily favors and targets underprivileged kids for admission.

Same at Dartmouth. My child is a freshman. There are wealthy boarding school kids but 30% of the students pay nothing.
There are a ton of FGLI, etc kids. The downside is that the students are underprepared. My smart but not a superstar kid finds it super easy and is on the second trimester of 99% or something ridiculous in all courses (has accelerated the rigor when able but a lot of classes have been required).

Is your freshman at Dartmouth taking STEM courses? Which ones? I'm surprised academics are that easy now/

Yes, they're a STEM major.
I think a lot of people would be surprised how dumbed down the Ivies are in 2026 in order to accommodate a pretty large cohort of kids who went to suboptimal high schools.

I have a STEM student at an Ivy (not Cornell or Princeton), and I’d be unable to give you any worthwhile intel on different stem majors at their university much less have an educated option on a variety of stem majors at 7 other institutions.

This would be a far superior forum if everyone had the restraint to only post about things they could possibly know.

I’m not the PP you’re responding to. But isn’t it the whole point for everyone to share their own experience?

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Anonymous wrote:USC, NYU, BU

Good catch with BU. NYU is actually a bit more socioeconomically diverse than BU.

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Anonymous wrote:USC in CA

Well…. It was nicknamed the University of Spoiled Children for a reason.

It’s a private in wealthy SoCal where, if you have the grades and stats, you go to UCLA for 40% of the cost of USC. The rich dumb kids end up at USC.

UCLA has a gorgeous campus in Westwood. USC is right smack in the middle of downtown LA.

The only major that’s stronger at USC is the film school, which is notoriously competitive to get into.

Um no. USC is now majority smart Asian kids from CA public schools that load up on APs. There are some different types in Film/Acting side of things. There are dumb jocks too and "new money" (mostly international) but nothing like the prep-school "old money" New England vibes.

USC 20% Asian. How is it "majority Asian"?

NP. For the class of 2025: Hispanic: 17%, Black: 6%, 24% Asian/Asian American, 22% White, 21% International, and 7% Multiple Ethnicities. The 21% international contingent is mostly Asian. So add the international Asians to the Asian Americans and it definitely the majority race on campus at roughly 40%+. White is 22%.