@Ohiodad51 Yup–When the makeup is more Choate, than Orange, NJ, difficulty will arise. One of the things my niece mentioned was not so much a waspy factor (while that certainly played into it), rather many of the kids had hopes and/or expectations of going the IVY route, and an ensuing inferiority complex formed , and it thus created hyper competition within the student body–she said that was very stressful.
Alas, we came from a different time–for good or bad–when back in black meant AC/DC and a really good kegger. As I shared on a previous post, right before I got on the plane for summer-camp (you know how that is) freshmen year, my mom ( a single mom at that) handed me 5 crisp 20s, and said to me " here you go–make it last, and see if you can get a part-time holiday job, so you can get home for xmas." I ended bunking with this theology major from India for the holidays (they kept it open for some of us)-him introducing me to curries and the such, and me teaching him the nuance and vagaries of dominos–yes it was certainly a different time.