<p>“they are where the old-money, real preps go.”</p>
<p>Nah, a lot of the old-money, real preps don’t want or need to work that hard. Yes, some still go there, but they’re an ever-shrinking demographic. If your great-grandfather founded a bank, you don’t need straight A’s in school to have a great life, and you know it. People whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower have nothing to prove. The Ivies are largely filled with immigrants and the children of (recent) immigrants. Strivers, not scions.</p>
<p>Just look at the stats. Asians and Jews together comprise less than 10% of the U.S. population, but about half the student body at Harvard College. The vast majority of the immigration to America for those two groups happened in the twentieth century. The Official Preppy Handbook came out ~30 years ago, and the change in the Ivies had already occurred at that point (though the book named Princeton as an exception).</p>