Interestingly, these are among the most generous need-based aid schools as well.
(on preview: @mathmom beat me to it 
)
Agreed though this can vary by individual school, especially 1.5-2 decades ago.
Incidentally, most of the HS classmates I knew who were admitted to those schools with the exception of Princeton(I attended a NYC public magnet in the early-mid '90s) ranged from low-income to lower-middle class. All received great FA and graduated with little/no debt.
Among the friends admitted were children of garment workers, waiters/waitresses in diners/Chinese restaurants, janitors, low-barrier entry skilled laborers, blue-collar factory workers, etc.
^^ Most of those schools have between 50 and 60% of undergrads applying for need-based aid per USNews. A slightly smaller percentage (usually 1 - 2% less) get aid. If there is even a small chance of you receiving aid, itâs worth it to apply.
And yet almost half the students of each of those institutions do not apply for institutional aid. Some percentage (5%? 10%? 15%? 20%?) receive significant aid from outside sources, but that still means around 25 - 30% of the student body at each of these institutions have families able and willing to drop 250 - 300k on undergraduate education.
Iâm not disputing that these institutions offer excellent financial aid, especially to families in lower income brackets, but to imply that a very sizable chunk of the kids at these schools arenât from exceedingly wealthy families is disingenuous.
Where was this implied?
âmost of the HS classmates I knew who were admitted to those schools [. . .] ranged from low-income to lower-middle class.â
âAmong the friends admitted were children of garment workers, waiters/waitresses in diners/Chinese restaurants, janitors, low-barrier entry skilled laborers, blue-collar factory workers, etc.â
This post certainly carried an implication that lower/lower-middle income kids made up a larger portion of students at these schools than exceedingly wealthy kids.
Iâm aware that the post is anecdotal, but for every kid at these schools whose parents are blue collar workers, thereâs another kid from a family of Goldman or McKinsey execs.
The felt experience of my middle middle class kids at elite schools was that the vast majority of their peers were not just from families more affluent than ours (which was to be expected), but were from very wealthy familiesâsome were the kind that have private jets and maintain apartments in NYC just for the occasional night out. D could count on one hand the number of her college friends who hadnât attended private schools, and the very few she met from public schools were not from ordinary good public schools but from the top top ones mentioned on CC. While Dâs schoolâs actual enrollment statistics may have disproved her perception, that doesnât matter to fit, does it? Perhaps the fact D was an athlete impacted that somewhat, since Iâve noticed that the elites like to draw their athletes from prep schools. Perhaps thatâs because itâs harder to find public school athletes with the academic preparation required for admission, or perhaps thatâs because in this increasingly competitive admissions landscape those hooked candidates offer the elites a way to continue to take their quota from their traditional high school sources. Whatever the case, only one of Dâs college friends was middle class like her, and to be honest that girl did not handle college well so they parted ways.
My experience at Harvard was just the opposite. I only knew a handful who came from the elite. Most of my friends came from very normal middle class backgrounds and had worked jobs like bagging groceries. Most had attended public schools, though Iâd gone to a private school because my parents were overseas for part of the time I was in high school and they needed a place where I could board. I didnât know a lot of athletes.
My experience at Williams was similar to @mathmom 's at Harvard. But againâanecdata is useless.
Yes, but the point is, that you can go to a place like Williams or Harvard and not feel like you are the only public school middle class or working class kid. Youâll have a lot of company.
Sure and agreed.
Weird thread. You realize nearly everyone posting here is an adult and Iâd wager that, save for a few, most formed their opinions at a distance, only maybe because their kid(s) visited or they have friends there (or relatives.) Or they went to the college some time ago. Or their kid IS there, but they arenât. A few may have talked to some college reps. But, really.
As some random thread, ok. But is OP going to take this seriously to help her kid ânarrow?â Say what?!
I would hope that our posts would just be used to fill in some blanks, to provide info about ours or othersâ experiences (whether primary or secondary). Should a parent or kid use this to make a decision? Nope. The bones of app decisions should be based on objective things like class sizes, curricular styles/requirements, available majors and classes, school setting and location, cost, etc. The subjective part hopefully will be satisfied by a visit, an interview, a report from a friend who attends. If a kid canât get there, and doesnât call a dean or a prof, or doesnât know anyone who attends, then the subjective posts here and elsewhere might be used, I suppose. (which reminds me to not post things about schools iâve never experienced, other than things i have read that were posted by those who have⊠and hopefully not misremembering themâŠ)
@1d51jklad1
Reading your post reminded me of all the rich kids who were at UCSC with me years ago! I came from a single parent household and my mom struggled to send me to college. Many other students there came from wealthy LA families. Ironically my son is at Yale and he is fortunate to benefit from their amazing FA but if he went to a UC it would have cost us moreâŠa whole LOT MORE!
I would use GENEROUS as a descriptive for Yale.
this thread is an exercise in heuristics⊠often wrong. and at the end of the day the only thing that matters is your opinion and your ârealityâ. visit the schools⊠spend time with students.
case in point most people have no idea what Stanford is like as an undergrad⊠yet they are will say things like chill, relaxed, Cali, sun, etcâŠetcâŠ
Stanford is one of the most intense undergrad environments around. the quarter system is brutal compared to the traditional semester system (which frankly is a walk in the park imo).
âMy experience at Harvard was just the opposite. I only knew a handful who came from the elite. Most of my friends came from very normal middle class backgrounds and had worked jobs like bagging groceries. Most had attended public schools,â
This was my daughterâs experience of Harvard too. There were probably some rich kids there somewhere, but they were few and far between. Nearly all of my daughterâs friends and blockmates were middle class. A few were upper middle class and a few were full-ride finaid kids from the other end of the spectrum. The upper middle class kids were mostly from dual-income families where both parents had good-earning professional jobs. I canât think of a single one who came from a truly wealthy family.
Final clubs played a huge role in the lives of the small minority of kids who were part of the final club crowd. But the clubs barely even existed for the large majority of kids who didnât care about them and took no notice.
When we talk about rich kids at certain colleges, some tend to pull out facts and figures about how many full pay, how many on some FA. Some like to suggest that if there are very rich kids, you canât be happy. But when youâre there, your friends tend to be your friends. You build relationships with them. You donât always know whoâs got a trust fund (or just acts like they do.)
Thatâs not what my sister said. To paraphrase her: âYou donât have any time to get Bâs because youâre so busy getting Aâsâ (true story). Anecdata is fun!
@marvin100 lols⊠N of 1 is always the way to go⊠especially on a thread with parents humble bragging about their kids:)
An older cousin who was an engineering major there recounted excelling there while having a very fun relaxed 4 years.
It was one of the reasons why another older cousin younger than him who graduated as an engineering major from Caltech used to refer to Stanford as a âvacation resortâ and âSlacker Uâ as a way to rib on him.
And the Caltech graduate wasnât jealous considering he felt the rigor/pacing there was âjust rightâ and he recounted having plenty of free time to pursue his ECsâŠincluding some athletic ones.
Anecdotes for everyone!