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<p>Why should a poor family want to send their child away to be raised alongside a bunch of strangers? Just because they’re poor? An Ivy League Education is not a top priority for everyone. Sending a poor, out of place teen to hang out with a bunch of rich kids is not necessarily a great idea. And that can be true for high school or college. Have you ever considered that maybe poor families have their kids’ best interest at heart? </p>
<p>Family matters. And I think most of the success stories people point to are going to tell you that including SS.</p>
<p>deleted…post was in response to the ■■■■■ whose comments have thankfully disappeared once again.</p>
<p>Of course family matters. She didn’t lose her family when she went to Yale!</p>
<p>I know a couple of families that sent their kids to boarding school via Prep for Prep and similar programs. They did it to get their kids out of neighborhoods that they thought were problematic and to avoid the craziness of the NYC public high school admissions process which can land a kid in a great school or in a hellhole.</p>
<p>No, her family was integral in preparing her to go in the first place. That’s what I meant. And, that is far from the typical. poor kids experience these days. Schools can’t be expected to do it all. They never did. And, they never will.</p>
<p>Correction: Princeton as an undergrad.</p>
<p>I just read the Wikipedia article on her, and her parents (mother after 9 when her father died) doesn’t seem to suppor the theory of parents preparing her for the Ivy League. Not that her mother wasn’t an inspiration, but that’s not the same as academic preparation.
<a href=“Sonia Sotomayor - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Sotomayor</a></p>
<p>“Celina Sotomayor put great stress on the value of education; she bought the Encyclopædia Britannica for her children, something unusual in the housing projects.[12]”</p>
<p>This. And, OK it’s grandma. But, that is still family involvement in education and it is unusual, as noted.</p>
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<p>And that’s true for many people of means as well. I never would have sent my kids away to boarding school, no matter how likely it would have made it that they would have gotten into a top Ivy. We had our kids for a short time as it was; no way was I going to short myself on those years. I know many people happily do the boarding school thing, so it’s not a criticism, just something we were absolutely not willing to do. Guess that makes us “close minded” as well. </p>
<p>Most of the studies I’ve seen about low SES and the benefits of an elite school
Education indicate that the nobody benefits more than them in all ways from this opportunity. For upper SES it doesn’t make nearly the difference at all. </p>
<p>If these schools really want to make this difference, they shd make it simpler for them to apply. Fewer hoops. </p>
<p>Also, and I say this on every thread I see about impoverished students: state universities shd not charge more than Pell for their Pell eligible students. They shd have to show good faith of admitting qualified Pell applicants also in order to be a Pell eligible institution. </p>
<p>Right. 
And I guess it’s closed minded if someone lives in the suburbs of Boston and wants to send their kid to Harvard?</p>
<p>Uh-oh. Thread is broken again.</p>
<p>I have 3 life long friends(divorced, low income mom) that went to boarding school back in the 80’s. Each is now very successful. </p>
<p>^^^And? Did someone imply one could not be successful if they went to boarding school?</p>
<p>Lol @Nrdsb4 </p>
<p>You can take your boxing gloves off & exit the ring! I wasn’t looking for a fight…lol I was just adding to the discussion. </p>
<p>^^^^No boxing gloves at all! Just wondering if anyone implied that boarding schools were inherently bad for everyone or that it couldn’t be the right choice for the right person.</p>
<p>No. Was only adding that I know 3 siblings who attended boarding school. </p>
<p>I knew 2 families who sent kids to boarding school. For one, it was a tradition-Mom had gone to boarding school, so both kids went happily away. The other family were well acquainted with the first family and D1 went to the same school as S1 of the other family-again happily, and to very good college result. Beautiful child, both inside and out. The other two children in that family did NOT want to go to boarding school, so they did not. Also had excellent college results.</p>
<p>This worked out great for those families, and they wouldn’t have done it any other way, as far as I know. </p>
<p>While having zero judgment towards the choices made by these families, it was absolutely not something we would have considered. Ds would have said no, and I was just too selfish to give them up that soon.</p>
<p>@Iglooo:</p>
<p>Some honors colleges provide a LAC-type environment. Some don’t really despite the rhetoric. You really have to investigate.</p>
<p>@Nrdsb4:
Boarding schools may not be 100% completely better for a kid in all ways (though I see a lot of merit in them), but personally, if there was an option that was 100% better for my kids in all ways, but I would have them at home 4 years less (and importantly, if they want to go), would I let them go? In a heartbeat.</p>
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<p>Or NYT could investigate and enlighten us. We know many issues at Ivys but not very well issues in State Us.</p>
<p>It also depends on where you are in he country. It you to to a college in an area with high social mobility, the prestige of the school doesn’t matter. You will make connections through internships.</p>