You are all way too harsh on this kid. She is 19!!!

Anonymous wrote:An NCS alum now at Dartmouth wrote this woe-is-me op-ed about how being a legacy is sooooo hard:

https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2022/10/i-think-ive-seen-this-film-before

I was planning on having my DD apply to NCS and the other Big 3, but this is making me reconsider. Does the extreme privilege of these environments breed students this insufferable?

You're willing to judge an entire school based on something written by one of its former students? Let me guess: criticial thinking isn't your forte.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP.
I get that the writer is probably legally 18 and an adult but I still feel really uncomfortable with many of these posts presumably by parents criticizing someone's child and her name being public. Can we move on to something else?

These threads make me feel sick and there are way too many of them where people provide identifying information about a child and then proceed to bash them. It's not right.

LOL. This kid chose to write this article in a public newspaper. She sought out publicity!!!
She also published her college destination in a public way (Instagram profile) the minute she got it.

I think this entire thread is horrible. You are calling out a 19 year old publicly. Come on, parents. Please rise above this petty meanness. Imagine if it was your college freshman.

Oh, please. She’s an adult. And a smart one. And an educated one. She made the decision to put herself out there. This is all on her.

Get over yourself - there is no "this" that is "on her." There is meaningless babble on an anonymous board.

Anonymous wrote:Typical liberal kid who gets to the Big City

No place screams "Big City" like Hanover, NH!

Anonymous wrote:I think some of the criticism here is a little disingenuous.

To me, it very much seems that she was aiming for self-deprecating and tongue in cheek. The problem is that it's so hard to get that tone right, especially in print, and I don't think she did. The editors should have been more responsible (esp. considering she's been on campus for about two seconds), and said, hey this isn't working in the way you intended and we're not running it.

(Fwiw, I went to a different Ivy undergrad and these school papers are huge operations. You had to apply to be a writer, the editor positions were super competitive, they had a board of trustees and a giant budget, etc. It's not like the articles just get stuck online with no oversight.)

I'm sure they were happy to print it! This is the kind of thing that goes viral. They would reap the benefit (publicity) and she's the only one coming off looking embarrassingly clueless.

Anonymous wrote:
I agree a this is a little overheated on the kid.

To the PPs question is this typical of big 3, the answer is complicated.

These schools are places where many of the kids have grown up w enormous privilege.

They work really hard for sure and should be proud of it. There are easier ways to get thru high school than these schools.
The workload is not for the faint of heart. And it’s still not easy at all to make it to their parents’ alma mater. Most legacies don’t get in.

However there was a thread a week or so back that many (most) of these kids who go to ivies are hooked on some way (urm, athlete, is r legacy). There are lots of legacies) an nsc parent commented that it was true of every nsc 2022 grad at an ivy save one.

It’s not surprising in a world where admit rates in these places have fallen to low single digits. It’s different than even five years ago.

I interview for my ivy and the quality of the kids these days sometimes intimidates me - the ones who make it unhooked are often running their own non-profits )real ones) or came through a much harder set of circumstances than me or my kids (lots of first gen kids).

So does it surprise me that a big 3 legacy kid would arrive on campus and start to angst about the whole system - why are there so many private school kids here - is that fair? And do I belong? Or who does? I’d guess there is a lot of that going on this fall. It might sound inartful and entitled through prism of an 18 year old but is the anxiety uncommon? I doubt it.

I send my kids to a big 3 because our school provides a wonderful education. But do I worry my kids are exposed to a lot of privilege? Yup. It’s incumbent on me to expose them to other parts of the world so it all doesn’t come as such a shock. And what I hope is my kids will use their privilege well - to work hard and to give back and to truly understand how unusual it is.


What exactly does this mean, though? I hear this a lot, even within my own extended family, and it always rings hollo[b]w. So many wealthy, privileged people patting themselves on the back for their magnanimity, but it’s all good as one as they never have to actually rub elbows with the masses. So many paternalistic and/or judgmental attitudes born out of ignorance for the way real people live.


I don't know that I have the answer to this. I am certainly not patting myself on that back. I am simply saying this dealing with privilege is a feature of attending top private schools and as a parent one should seek to solve for it as best you can,

I think some of the criticism here is a little disingenuous.

To me, it very much seems that she was aiming for self-deprecating and tongue in cheek. The problem is that it's so hard to get that tone right, especially in print, and I don't think she did. The editors should have been more responsible (esp. considering she's been on campus for about two seconds), and said, hey this isn't working in the way you intended and we're not running it.

(Fwiw, I went to a different Ivy undergrad and these school papers are huge operations. You had to apply to be a writer, the editor positions were super competitive, they had a board of trustees and a giant budget, etc. It's not like the articles just get stuck online with no oversight.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An NCS alum now at Dartmouth wrote this woe-is-me op-ed about how being a legacy is sooooo hard:

https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2022/10/i-think-ive-seen-this-film-before

I was planning on having my DD apply to NCS and the other Big 3, but this is making me reconsider. Does the extreme privilege of these environments breed students this insufferable?

OP are you jealous much??? I think you are a low class ass for posting this making fun of a still teen. Please get a life and do the rest of us a favor and do not apply to private. I get what she is saying as I went from public to private and there was a very distinct difference and private opened up an entire new world and places people summered together and same clubs and towns and whatnot. Clearly you don’t get it.

She is a legal adult who was stupid enough to publish this with her name attached. Sorry, but consequences.

Oooh you are so scary - what consequences having a bunch of jealous wackos trash her on here? Her writing is excellent I can see why she was admitted to an Ivy and maybe you or your daughter were not and now you find it necessary to trash her on here?

NP: Talk about trashing. Yikes! You sound way more trash talky than PP. Making up insults about her child? Seriously? OP questioned extreme privilege based on a public opinion article. Sounds like a viable question. Your vitriolic response-- Blech.

No some posters are being quite cruel to the writer. I just read the article and she said it was HER experience and HER perspective. Read the title. It is HER views on being a legacy. I don't see any issue with her article. She says herself that she is privileged and should not feel this way but that she still does. Give her a break she is young still.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP.
I get that the writer is probably legally 18 and an adult but I still feel really uncomfortable with many of these posts presumably by parents criticizing someone's child and her name being public. Can we move on to something else?

These threads make me feel sick and there are way too many of them where people provide identifying information about a child and then proceed to bash them. It's not right.

LOL. This kid chose to write this article in a public newspaper. She sought out publicity!!!
She also published her college destination in a public way (Instagram profile) the minute she got it.

Please. It was her school paper. She probably had no idea someone from DC would research it and post it here.

Research it? Hardly. There are many, many Dartmouth grads in the DMV and the author has to know that the paper is read here. I mean, c’mon.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just read her other essay.

https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2022/10/cradle-to-cap-and-gown-the-prep-school-to-ivy-pipeline

"After attending public school through the eighth grade, I switched to an all-girls private school in Washington, D.C. Going from a class of 500 to a class of 74 was a shock, but the true jolt was adapting to the pure wealth and privilege surrounding me. I consider my family to be very well off, but my peers made me feel like a pauper. Although there are a fair number of students on financial aid at exclusive high schools, the majority of the student body comes from rich, well-connected families."

Absurd. Oblivious and absurd.

How is that statement absurd?

The "majority" of the families are average UMC DC area families. Sure, well off by national standards, but for High Cost of Living DC, not so much.

I say good for her for going out and writing for the paper during the first six weeks of freshman year. I think she is trying to be provocative which is why she sounds ungrateful and she had 2.5 weird years of high school so I think her writing is fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP.
I get that the writer is probably legally 18 and an adult but I still feel really uncomfortable with many of these posts presumably by parents criticizing someone's child and her name being public. Can we move on to something else?

These threads make me feel sick and there are way too many of them where people provide identifying information about a child and then proceed to bash them. It's not right.

LOL. This kid chose to write this article in a public newspaper. She sought out publicity!!!
She also published her college destination in a public way (Instagram profile) the minute she got it.

Please. It was her school paper. She probably had no idea someone from DC would research it and post it here.

Well, her prominent Ivy school paper available worldwide online.

But, it is clearly possible she did not register these ramifications. The editor should have done more.

I think the first comment hits the nail on the head.

"I kind of question the decision from the D to bring this article, from a first-year that just joined the staff a few weeks ago, through the writing process to publication in this final form. More feedback definitely could've been given to this writer.. And this doubly tone-deaf tagline just adds to the setup..."

While this student deals with some worthwhile observations, she also drops some clunkers (the Yale bit is particularly awkward) and includes personal info that should be limited to a diary at 18. The editor should not have let this publish as is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP.
I get that the writer is probably legally 18 and an adult but I still feel really uncomfortable with many of these posts presumably by parents criticizing someone's child and her name being public. Can we move on to something else?

These threads make me feel sick and there are way too many of them where people provide identifying information about a child and then proceed to bash them. It's not right.

LOL. This kid chose to write this article in a public newspaper. She sought out publicity!!!
She also published her college destination in a public way (Instagram profile) the minute she got it.

Please. It was her school paper. She probably had no idea someone from DC would research it and post it here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP.
I get that the writer is probably legally 18 and an adult but I still feel really uncomfortable with many of these posts presumably by parents criticizing someone's child and her name being public. Can we move on to something else?

These threads make me feel sick and there are way too many of them where people provide identifying information about a child and then proceed to bash them. It's not right.

LOL. This kid chose to write this article in a public newspaper. She sought out publicity!!!
She also published her college destination in a public way (Instagram profile) the minute she got it.

I think this entire thread is horrible. You are calling out a 19 year old publicly. Come on, parents. Please rise above this petty meanness. Imagine if it was your college freshman.

Oh, please. She’s an adult. And a smart one. And an educated one. She made the decision to put herself out there. This is all on her.