<p>Thanks for the interesting comments. My concern is that my child is applying to some challenging schools for the academic stimulation, not for the name brand or prestige. He is a very laid-back kid who could care less about what he wears, how much wealth someone has, or how worldly they are. </p>
<p>In our campus visits, we have not felt that the college students or those who were visiting seemed off-putting, but I keep reading on CC and other sites about all of the preppy, snobby, or status-driven students at so many of these schools. Again, this has not been what we have seen, which is why I’m posing this question. If my son is fortunate enough to get in one of these schools, I worry that he would feel out of place.</p>
<p>I can only speak from personal experience about Yale, and I don’t think he’d feel out of place there at all. I feel pretty confident about Brown as well, and probably Harvard. Princeton I’d wonder about too, because of its long-time reputation, but people who go there say this isn’t really an issue.</p>
<p>He sounds a lot like my son. I had the same concerns, and we talked about it during college visits. He’s now a freshman at Yale who applied through Questbridge, is a jeans from JCPenney kid, and the only clothes upgrade he has requested is a Yale sweatshirt. Yale says they put thought into how suitemates are put together - it has given him a core group he is very comfortable with, and I think that’s a factor. There’s no denying that it is a different world from the public high school he attended, but he is very happy and loves it there. </p>
<p>(OP, feel free to PM me if you have specific questions; I did some worrying I’d be glad to try to spare you.)</p>
<p>This is a good description of my experience at a top-20 university in a small town many years ago. </p>
<p>But I know people who attended universities in cities who had different experiences. In a major city, there are expensive things you can do for fun on the weekends. Some kids can afford to do them; others are left out.</p>
<p>I went to Harvard more than 30 years ago, all I can say is that while I was a prep school student myself, most of my friends were not. Even back then I think 40% or so of the school had gone to public high schools and about that percentage also got full scholarships. It was rarely obvious if people had money or not and there was certainly no culture of flaunting it. I’ve actually become more aware of how wealthy some people were at various off campus reunion events. These schools are so big and so varied that you really can find whatever niche suits you. My older son attended the Accepted Students weekend at Harvard and right away found the math nerd/game playing/science fiction reading kids just like him.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all of the reassuring feedback. Again, our impressions were very positive at all of the schools we visited. It’s just the occasional negative press that has concerned us.</p>