Observations from someone who group in an extremely immigrant-dense middle and lower-middle class part of the Bay Area:

Few of the kids and parents at my school were prestige obsessed. The overwhelming focus was on what was affordable and best for one's career, which meant educational pathways to programming, medicine, or, to a lesser extent, law. UCs were the focus, with Berkeley on top because it was affordable, local, and internationally very well known. I'm sure kids in affluent towns like Los Altos, Piedmont, or Orinda were obsessing over HYPSM and LACs like AWS though.

As for Southern California, it's certainly academically competitive. But where it really shines is sports. I played in a travel club sport and in Olympic development teams all over the western half of America, and I don't think any region was as focused or obsessed with youth athletic development as Southern California.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DMV comes in below NY, CT, NJ, CA, and MA.

It’s only a small % of parents here.

Definitely. I grew up in Massachusetts and it is MUCH more prestige obsessed than here.

Well it doesn’t help that Mass is the college capital of America. Harvard and MIT in proximity probably makes some parents go a bit crazy.

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Anonymous wrote:What about Orange county / newport beach?

No. I’m in So Cal. Pretty easy going compared to other spots. My kid is at a competitive school, but even so it’s not as culturally cutthroat.

Newport Beach is home to the varsity blues scandal. It is or was a home also to Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniel's one-time attorney, sentenced for extortion plot.

The city is full of retirees who may no longer be competing. The younger ones, aren't exactly the cooperative types. The city of Newport Beach has a very high percentage of apartments relative to homeowners. These are often Newport wannabes. It's a competitive environment.

Oh thanks for explaining Newport Beach to me 😂 As I mentioned I live in Southern California and I know it well. Still, it’s not cutthroat and academically competitive like the Bay Area. It’s just not.

NB is cutthroat in terms of looks and bling, not academics.

-long time resident of both SoCal and Bay Area

Exactly

Anonymous wrote:DMV comes in below NY, CT, NJ, CA, and MA.

It’s only a small % of parents here.

Definitely. I grew up in Massachusetts and it is MUCH more prestige obsessed than here.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Orange county / newport beach?

No. I’m in So Cal. Pretty easy going compared to other spots. My kid is at a competitive school, but even so it’s not as culturally cutthroat.

Newport Beach is home to the varsity blues scandal. It is or was a home also to Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniel's one-time attorney, sentenced for extortion plot.

The city is full of retirees who may no longer be competing. The younger ones, aren't exactly the cooperative types. The city of Newport Beach has a very high percentage of apartments relative to homeowners. These are often Newport wannabes. It's a competitive environment.

Oh thanks for explaining Newport Beach to me 😂 As I mentioned I live in Southern California and I know it well. Still, it’s not cutthroat and academically competitive like the Bay Area. It’s just not.

NB is cutthroat in terms of looks and bling, not academics.

-long time resident of both SoCal and Bay Area

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Orange county / newport beach?

No. I’m in So Cal. Pretty easy going compared to other spots. My kid is at a competitive school, but even so it’s not as culturally cutthroat.

Newport Beach is home to the varsity blues scandal. It is or was a home also to Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniel's one-time attorney, sentenced for extortion plot.

The city is full of retirees who may no longer be competing. The younger ones, aren't exactly the cooperative types. The city of Newport Beach has a very high percentage of apartments relative to homeowners. These are often Newport wannabes. It's a competitive environment.

Oh thanks for explaining Newport Beach to me 😂 As I mentioned I live in Southern California and I know it well. Still, it’s not cutthroat and academically competitive like the Bay Area. It’s just not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Orange county / newport beach?

No. I’m in So Cal. Pretty easy going compared to other spots. My kid is at a competitive school, but even so it’s not as culturally cutthroat.

Newport Beach is home to the varsity blues scandal. It is or was a home also to Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniel's one-time attorney, sentenced for extortion plot.

The city is full of retirees who may no longer be competing. The younger ones, aren't exactly the cooperative types. The city of Newport Beach has a very high percentage of apartments relative to homeowners. These are often Newport wannabes. It's a competitive environment.

PP again. That said, with its own share of academic scandals, it's not as "competitive" as nearby high schools, e.g., University HS of Irvine, that have a large Asian population.

Asian schools are competitive in an academic sense. Newport Beach is competitive in another sense, where some - but not all - entitled parents play the laid-back game while behind the scene, they literally cheat their way up the academic ladder.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Orange county / newport beach?

No. I’m in So Cal. Pretty easy going compared to other spots. My kid is at a competitive school, but even so it’s not as culturally cutthroat.

Newport Beach is home to the varsity blues scandal. It is or was a home also to Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniel's one-time attorney, sentenced for extortion plot.

The city is full of retirees who may no longer be competing. The younger ones, aren't exactly the cooperative types. The city of Newport Beach has a very high percentage of apartments relative to homeowners. These are often Newport wannabes. It's a competitive environment.

The varsity blues scandal was clueless SoCal types who took the "wrong" way to force their kids into college (bribing coaches, getting ringers to take the SAT, etc.) NorCal, NYC, DC parents do things the "right" way (donations, extensive prep, hired 'reputable' college counselors, etc.) Varsity blues revealed precisely how not plugged in SoCal is.

LOL, Michigan above Berkeley. Okay...

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Anonymous wrote:I was talking to some old college friends who are now in the Bay Area and they’re on another level it seems. Many of them are pushing their kids pretty hard to get Harvard, Stanford, Duke, Columbia, etc. Just goes to show it’s all relative

Troll.

No one outside the DMV area considers Duke in this group. Bay area people don't.

Generally speaking, if someone is dug into the mindset that a school like Duke is a "lesser" school on any level they are already deep into it. No matter where they live.

PP is welcome to speculate. if someone is dug into the mindset that a school like Duke is on any level similar to Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, they are already deep into it.

Yikes for your kids. Hope they perform at a level that is satisfying enough for you, or if they don't, hope they can't tell how disappointed you are.

From Wiki:

Duke Rankings and reputation

Academic rankings
National

ARWU[175]
22
Forbes[176]
17
THE / WSJ[177]
16
U.S. News & World Report[178]
7 (tie)
Washington Monthly[179]
6

#6 and 7 for rankings only from ranking games that emphasize social mobility, pell grants, DEI, etc.

If you want to combine multiple outside rankings, all these rankings change year-to-year. This was just from last year:

Duke tied with HARVARD at #4.
What's wrong with this picture?

DCUM math: Duke = Harvard, Harvard = Stanford, Duke = Stanford

This looks like it was calculated from taking pure numerical averages of all the rankings, so no subjectivity and all performance-based. To be fair, Harvard is obviously the poster child of higher education but their undergrad experience has been known to leave something to be desired.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Orange county / newport beach?

No. I’m in So Cal. Pretty easy going compared to other spots. My kid is at a competitive school, but even so it’s not as culturally cutthroat.

Newport Beach is home to the varsity blues scandal. It is or was a home also to Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniel's one-time attorney, sentenced for extortion plot.

The city is full of retirees who may no longer be competing. The younger ones, aren't exactly the cooperative types. The city of Newport Beach has a very high percentage of apartments relative to homeowners. These are often Newport wannabes. It's a competitive environment.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I've always supposed it's a direct reflection of cost of living. Wealthy, educated parents see how expensive it is to raise a kid in a very high COL location, and get worried their kid won't be able to replicate the same success unless they have a particular brand name on their diploma.

I know this is so crazy, right! My degree is from the Univsersity of Oklahoma and I got here (wealthy UMC) without Harvard. I just don’t see how my kids need Harvard. It will never replace drive and ambition. Plus, coming from a place that isn’t even on people’s radar has been great - everyone thinks I’m “down to Earth”, “grounded”, “easy to get along with”, “unintimidating”. The stereotypes have helped me in a highly competitive world.

Did you like the University of Oklahoma?

Sure, it did the job. Some of the students were a bit too conservative for my liking, but there were enough students that I had a good social circle. Because, it’s not a top notch school I graduated Summa Cume Laude and the professors were tripping over themselves to give me opportunities - that was awesome. Had I gone to Harvard or somewhere more competitive, maybe I would be middle of the pack and have had less individual help to get opportunities.

Anonymous wrote:What about Orange county / newport beach?

No. I’m in So Cal. Pretty easy going compared to other spots. My kid is at a competitive school, but even so it’s not as culturally cutthroat.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a rich people + "intellectual" people + high potential dc thing.

That combination is less common in DC than other areas.

Right. Even the older DC-raised people I know are not snobby that way. It's a good thing!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was talking to some old college friends who are now in the Bay Area and they’re on another level it seems. Many of them are pushing their kids pretty hard to get Harvard, Stanford, Duke, Columbia, etc. Just goes to show it’s all relative

Troll.

No one outside the DMV area considers Duke in this group. Bay area people don't.

Generally speaking, if someone is dug into the mindset that a school like Duke is a "lesser" school on any level they are already deep into it. No matter where they live.

PP is welcome to speculate. if someone is dug into the mindset that a school like Duke is on any level similar to Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, they are already deep into it.

Yikes for your kids. Hope they perform at a level that is satisfying enough for you, or if they don't, hope they can't tell how disappointed you are.

From Wiki:

Duke Rankings and reputation

Academic rankings
National

ARWU[175]
22
Forbes[176]
17
THE / WSJ[177]
16
U.S. News & World Report[178]
7 (tie)
Washington Monthly[179]
6

#6 and 7 for rankings only from ranking games that emphasize social mobility, pell grants, DEI, etc.

If you want to combine multiple outside rankings, all these rankings change year-to-year. This was just from last year:

Duke tied with HARVARD at #4.
What's wrong with this picture?

DCUM math: Duke = Harvard, Harvard = Stanford, Duke = Stanford