<p>There is one thing I have gotten out of CC in the past 8 1/2 years (among many great things too), and that is the prevalence of the idea of elitism and the desire for prestige and this was extremely absent from the community and school where my kids grew up. And in many ways, this was priceless. My kids could not relate to this. I recall when they were in HS and I read CC and would tell them of posts by students and parents about “must have Ivy” or “prep school is better” and so on and so forth, they just could not relate. I find it was beneficial for the kids to not grow up around that kind of thinking. They were/are driven types and have high standards for themselves but there was never a competitive atmosphere growing up and there was an acceptance of all types of people and all kind of colleges. The idea of “best” college and so on was not their way of thinking. Even now, they don’t think their fine colleges were better than other colleges but only that these schools really matched what they wanted and they had a great experience.</p>