99% Wall Street legacies

<p>Next year my 12 year old would like to apply to a number of different boarding schools. I thought I read a post about one school (I don't remember which one) that was impossible to get into because it was made up of 99% Wall Street legacies. Because my daughter has very limited time, and has a ton of writing with her regular schoolwork and EPGY writing classes, I'd like to know what this school is so that we don't have to bother wasting our time and applying.
Thanks</p>

<p>1) This is a ridiculous charge</p>

<p>2) Even if this were true, the underlying assumption is that Wall Street isn't a competitive field that doesn't reward meritocracy. It absolutely is. If you are smart, competitive, a producer, a moneymaker, you will be promoted and rewarded like nobody's business - regardless of what you look like. With the competition for talented / skilled labor higher than ever (even within the financial sector - private equity / hedge funds, etc.) Wall St. firms cannot ignore this reality (and have not). Remember, these are businesses at the end of the day. They are accountable to shareholders. Goldman was the last remaining bulge bracket Wall St. firm that was a private partnership and even they have gone public. Bottom line? It's the bottom line. They want people who make them money. Period.</p>

<p>Lastly, with legislation firmly keeping an eye out for discrimination, Wall St. firms are very wary of discriminatory practices (just read up on the millions of dollars Wall St. firms have paid in recent years - its been a literal witch hunt against i-banks for every possible infringement possible - these places are literally bursting with red tape).</p>

<p>As you would see on this board if you've been here for the past year, you have plenty of people getting into the top schools (and lower schools) who aren't Wall Street legacies, unless they have a life they aren't telling us about. I find that statement very frivolous. Take a chance at any school. No boarding school would be that exclusive; first of all, they wouldn't have any geographic, socioeconomic or ethnic diversity. That would tank their reputation in an instant.</p>

<p>Uh what? No one is making a charge against Wall Street. I am asking about a message that someone else posted.</p>

<p>Ryanone, look at my post.</p>

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Uh what? No one is making a charge against Wall Street. I am asking about a message that someone else posted.

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</p>

<p>And I am responding in kind. In case you didn't understand my previous post --> take a hard look at Wall St. --> it's not your "father's Wall St." --> it is extremely diverse now. I'd argue its much more diverse than your typical Fortune 500 company.</p>

<p>Wall Street firms don't care what you look like or how much money your dad has in the bank. Wall Street firms care about what you have upstairs and how that will translate into a fatter bottom line. Still don't understand? Can't help you then.</p>

<p>Olivia, thank you for your input.</p>

<p>The thing is that -- if there is a 99% Wall Street legacy school (and I doubt that's true) -- it would suck. Not because Wall Street isn't a meritocracy, but because it's ONE TYPE of meritocracy. And a 99% legacy rate of that type of background tells me that this mythical school is insular. And, in my mind, insularity is the antithesis of education. Yes, it may groom students for a certain type of success, but it hardly exposes them to the rest of the world. In fact, I believe that success on Wall Street is at least in some small way a function of individual exposure to other views, cultures, marketplaces, etc. </p>

<p>So -- if we can assume (for argument's sake) the premise of a 99% Wall St. legacy school -- I have to say that meritocracy or not, the student population would be so narrowly defined that the school would suck...in which case people from Wall St. would recognize that such a school would suck and be bad news for their children...and, as such, they wouldn't send their children there because they're looking for their children to get ahead, not be surrounded by more people who are just like them...and, from there it follows that the school wouldn't have enough fannies from Wall Street to fill its seats so the school would look elsewhere for students...in which case the Wall Street legacy % would dip considerably below 99%...and that's when -- perhaps -- Wall Street families (is that even a legacy group?) might reconsider the school.</p>

<p>At some point there'd be a market equilibrium for this school...and I'm here to say that it's going to be significantly below 99% unless the school is really, really crappy and draws from that rare breed of Wall Street families who have no innate competitive spark.</p>

<p>This is actually an amusing little proposition. Could such a school exist? As George Kennan said of communism and Karl Marx said of capitalism, wouldn't a school of 99% Wall Street legacies have within it, "the seeds of its own destruction?" I think its inherently inconsistent, like a pro-life libertarian or cold fusion machine. And just as entertaining.</p>

<p>probably one of those hype articles on elite education. don't believe it. sounds just as bad as "Preparing for Power"..another hilarious book on BS education.</p>