<p>Hi, so I am an African American girl in the ABC program who would need at least 85% of tuition granted to me to attend a boarding school.
I've always gotten good grades and been very involved at school, and I don't come from a poor area at all. When I was younger and before the economy fell, my parents made around 300,000 a year from their own business. Nowadays I lie with my mom and we live in a 1300 sq. ft. townhouse. However my mom is getting re-married and so we'll be moving into a larger house.</p>
<p>I guess my issue is that I don't want to be seen as one of those poor black scholarship kids (even though I guess I am) and the only reason why I'm there is to make the school look more diverse. I know that I'd do well at a boarding school and I've already been accepted into some great ones (though I won't say which because their decision day has not yet arrived). </p>
<p>I can assure you I think I'm well qualified and well spoken (all of my interviews went incredibly well), and so I'm just worried that people will have to get to know me to give me any credit as a student at some of these schools :(</p>
<p>My dad went to a HADES school and was a black ABC student who was on almost full financial aid. He fit in great at the school and became very popular. At these schools, socioeconomic status really doesn’t factor into every day life and I’m sure people will give you credit when its due. Don’t forget to post your results on the 2014 Clean Official Boarding Decisions and Applicant Stats/ Extracurriculars thread on Monday! Good luck!</p>
<p>Some life advice: Be yourself. You can’t control what other people think and if you head into boarding school worrying about things like this you’ll have a hard time. </p>
<p>@boardingjunkie Momof7thgrader is spot on. My daughter is also an ABC cohort and she’s been (when younger) the only child of color in class at her private school but she’s never questioned it or worried what others may think. Being accepted into ABC (as you were) was on your merit and no easy task. There were (if I remember) over 750 applications in the NE region and only 225 accepted. You should be very proud of yourself…and that pride will show (as it should). Confidence is attractive. BTW so what if someone wants to think you’re a poor black kid who’s there on FA…you can’t control how others think and if they want to assume…that’s their problem. Good luck with all of your decisions</p>
<p>Let’s reverse the scenario: say most of the students at some school are from diverse/‘minority’ backgrounds (i.e., international, dark etc.) on some sort of FA/scholarship (not that far-fetched, especially among today’s elite prep schools), but there are a couple of white full-paying students too.</p>
<p>What about the latter group now? Aren’t they going to be accused of ‘white privilege’? Won’t they feel like you are: that they just got in (if not for compensating for their historical under-representation like you, then) because they have old money?</p>
<p>Discrimination is inevitable (even I’m feeling a lot like you right now, and thinking that such claims might true to an extent); but you’ll just have to focus on building a peer group that’s planning their next project instead of wondering whether they really would’ve been there if something about them was different.</p>
<p>@themorningsky yeah I’ve realized this by now haha. And it’s not like I’m not prepared for it, but it was an honest concern of mine.
And I’m not going to argue about reverse racism or anything like that on here, because it’s just not the place to do that, but I get what you’re saying. All minorities are going to be subject to some level of ignorance and prejudice. </p>
<p>Regardless, at his point my main fear is getting good grades, mostly because I’m an avid procrastinator haha</p>
<p>@themorningsky - Your reverse scenario is an interesting thought experiment. But I can’t think of a situation where this would be the case. So it remains just that, a thought experiment.</p>
<p>@RoomNacht lol there would never be a situation like that, not to be rude at all. It’s I swear I don’t mean to be mean, if it comes off that way haha. </p>
<p>But also I hate that this thread was brought back up… I’m waiting for it to sliver back to the tenth page or something haha.</p>
<p>Actually, there are situations like that. My son (who is now grown) often was the only caucasian suburban kid on his AAU basketball teams and later was definitely in the minority on his college football team. He did fine. His teammates are still among his best friends. Race and socioeconomic status played no role at all—individual traits like personality, character, and talent did, though. </p>
<p>Well not to beat a dead thread but my FP kid would always be looked at as a scholarship kid because of ethnicity and the fact that many friends were scholarship kids. So, this was a reverse of the reverse? Where do old threads go to die?</p>