<p>oldfort, mental instability is a risk factor in accepting a student on campus. Being rich is not a risk factor. No comparison. If anything, colleges LIKE rich applicants who do not require need and may potential be donors as alumni or parents of alumni.</p>
<p>It would be ok not to disclose something that could be of risk to a community, but it would be lying or lack of integrity not to be totally upfront about something that’s not a risk factor.</p>
<p>Just thinking about it as a business, if someone walks through the door of your store who just hopped out of a Jag and looks like they have big bucks to spend, would you get all green-eyed and be rude to them? Or would you scurry your butt over to kiss up to a potential big sale? Colleges are businesses, and it seems to me they must be quite happy to have rich clientele. I’d bet a number of them are slobbering over the possibility of attracting one of the 3 Gates children. Even if they had single digit I.Q.'s.</p>
<p>First, I agree with blossom on this. Don’t hide it. Don’t try to be coy or sub-anything. Oldfort’s point is that you don’t have to share EVERY detail. Okay don’t list your annual income, but don’t try to be sneaky either.</p>
<p>The adcoms can pretty much figure someone’s worth based on various factors: zip codes, HS, and company where you work. No hiding it. That’s been clear to most kids too, ever since the tv show “90210”. When you then add where your parents went to school and how many degrees, that tells a lot. So OP, don’t fudge it. (Worked for GS, live in Short Hills, earned an MBA from Harvard and you’re “just” a manager. Are you kidding??!!</p>
<p>Write whatever is on the business card.</p>
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<p>In my 8 years of college counseling, I have yet to have a client ask me the question that is the topic of this thread. My clients all fill out a questionnaire when we start that also includes their parents’ educations and jobs. I will assume that they filled out the same thing on their college apps. Nobody ever questioned it with me. I certainly do not believe in packaging yourself in a way that tries to make you something you are not, or isn’t truthful. I believe in showing who you are on an application, no more, no less. As well, I would see no need to not disclose parents occupations. And I do deal with people who are upper middle class or wealthy because poor people don’t hire an independent counselor (though I am not a high paid type of one). Many of my clients have parents who are doctors, lawyers, business owners, in finance, and yes, have MBAs from Harvard (to pick up on the recent post on this thread). Everyone discloses these things. No they do not provide their incomes (unless filling out FAFSA). I don’t know any to fudge any of this. And some of it is obvious when you see some of their summer experiences, travel experiences, or private schools they attend or communities in which they live anyway. Again, NONE of this is a drawback in admissions. Rich kids get into elite colleges by the thousands. What an applicant should not do is to flaunt it, such as on essays or in interviews, but they should not hide parent jobs and such. While I would suggest a student not write an essay about “the day I crashed my BMW,” I would still have a student list their parents’ occupations.</p>
<p>I must be too plebian to even get the gist of this argument.</p>
<p>Except that someone should call the NY Times the day “children of the rich” become an endangered species on college campuses. I hope that both Huffington Report and the National Enquirer send a team of reporters to explain why it’s just too damn hard for a kid in New Jersey in a top school district with successful parents to get accepted to college. Must be all those underclass kids in Maplewood and Orange filling the eating clubs at Princeton and the Secret Societies at Yale.</p>
<p>Maybe…</p>
<p>Blossom…:D</p>
<p>Does Blossom live in Maplewood or Oranges? I know a lot of nice people from there. 
( this is the only expression I know how to make).</p>
<p>Which Oranges? South, West, maybe. East, or plain old Orange, I can pretty much guarantee not.</p>
<p>blossom, sometimes it feels that it’s impossible to stand out once you start hearing of all these kids getting likely letters and see that so many on this forum are URMs.
But, remember, the kids on CC are a small group of kids. And this is the internet, where people can be totally dishonest (about their stats, financial scholarships, acceptances, etc) and even about getting a likely letter. And yes, it is frustrating to feel you did everything right, except you didn’t have a hook.
</a></p>
<p>The thread is drifting but I think you just have to give an answer you are comfortable with. We have a very good friend who runs a significant company now and he’ll tell new aquaintances that he’s in sales. And he is if you stop and think about it. If you’re not applying for financial aid you don’t need to share anything more than you want to with a college. You’re writing the checks there is no need for anyone to know anything else. If you run a family business you can put down family business or sales or whatever you like. It isn’t hiding or obfuscating or anthing of the sort. Heck if you think about it and you run a family company that is private not public you could put down self-employed if you wanted to. My dad ran a company and always told people he was an engineer and he was…he just also happened to be President of the company. I never put my “title” on forms unless it’s a form that specifically “needs” a title. I simply put my occupation.</p>
<p>re. #91: uh… i’m pretty sure that blossom was being sarcastic. lol</p>
<p>I agree with all total nonsense opinions.</p>
<p>Wow - has this thread taken a turn! I feel the need to defend some of the attitudes coming across in respect to the very wealthy - we are not all spoiled and entitled. The next time Forbes magazine publishes their wealthiest Americans issue check to see who is self-made versus those that inherited their wealth. My husband and his partners created a multi-billion dollar international corporation with some money and many, many hours of very hard work. They worked 7 days a week, 18 hour days, and invented a better mousetrap (as the saying goes). They took no salary for the first 5 years or so in order to hire the best out there. They all came from very modest families who put a high premium on education; they all went to public schools through high school, some went to public colleges because their families couldn’t afford private colleges, some went to private colleges on scholarships.</p>
<p>Are our kids more privileged? Absolutely, I would never deny that. Are they spoiled, not any more so than most suburban kids. They also know that they are fortunate and as such donate both time and money to charities of their choice. But they do face predjudice such as stated in this thread; I knew when my daughter was admitted into two ivies there was going to be talk that it was because of her fathers “connections.” It didn’t matter that she was number 2 in her graduating class with perfect scores on her SATs and that her ECs were numerous and diverse. Those who truly know us knew that my husband would never use connections even if he had any, which he did not. Did she put down his title and company, yes, would that give adcoms an idea of what our financial status was, probably. Yet, our zip code is not a “wealthy flag” zip code. Does that give her an advantage? Honestly I don’t know, I suppose being able to pay in full was an advantage except they couldn’t admit too many full paying students because it would mess up their numbers for students needing aid which I know many colleges care about. My daughter also turned down every scholarship she was offered so that a fellow student who needed it more could get it and that was her idea totally; I didn’t even know you could do that.</p>
<p>Anyway, for those of you who do look at the Forbes list, keep in mind that the majority of wealthiest Americans aren’t even on that list because they fly under the radar. Two of my husbands partners aren’t listed and their wealth is the same as ours, they have just moved on to other things and no longer come into work every day. I guess either Forbes researchers are too lazy to look them up (it’s public record as to who are the partners in the firm) or no one would be interested. Personally, I don’t know why anyone is interested anyway. Not all wealthy families are Trumps or Hiltons, some of us are your next door neighbors.</p>
<p>Okay, I’m done ranting.</p>
<p>Hmm, I wasn’t reading any posts that imply children of wealthy parents are spoiled. I was reading some who have an opinion that an applicant should record their parents’ occupations and where they work and there is no need to hide that. In fact, your (amtc) daughter did just that and I support that and as you can see, it was not a drawback to her being accepted at several very fine universities. That was the whole point many are making on this thread. I don’t see people frowning upon the wealthy. What’s to frown upon? I admire those who are well off!! (and yes, many have worked very hard to attain that wealth) An applicant doesn’t need to hide that they are privileged in this way. What they want to avoid is any attitudes that either flaunt it or come across as entitled, etc. Not all wealthy kids have such a spoiled attitude of course. But being wealthy is just a fact, not an attitude. Applicants should stick to the facts and have no reason to hide what their parents do for a living.</p>
<p>Oh boy. What a litmus question the OP raised. The OP has disappeared, but I think with that screen name the OP was a ■■■■■. Just a hunch.</p>
<p>So many conclusions here.</p>
<p>Hm. I know profiling is unappealing. However, the uber-wealthy and ordinarily spoiled suburban kids do not have the same lifestyle. We have self-made billionaires in our community and the kids whose dads (not sexist, just factual) are part of that cadre get to go to Europe to pick out a new pony. Not ordinary spoiled suburban kids who made prefer Banana Republic jeans to Old Navy. That doesn’t make the kids unpleasant or undeserving of a wonderful college experience or even not as nice as other kids. It’s just saying their lifestyle is different.</p>
<p>I live in metro NY. Most secretaries do not earn six figures.</p>
<p>$180,000 is upper middle class (not upper class) no matter where you leave based on definition. It is true that there are communities where it is not easy to maintain the average lifestyle of the community on that income.</p>
<p>The Federal Gov’t. defines upper class as over $300,000 a year in income.</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is getting into uber elite schools is difficult no matter what income level the kid finds him/herself in. However, it is true that a 2100 SAT score iz more impressive from kid who has never had his/her own bedroom to study in, his/her own computer or access to college or SAT coaching. </p>
<p>However, there will always be places for rich kids, but even rich kids don’t always land in the exact college they choose unless their clearly development candidates.</p>
<p>I like JHS’s idea that this is idea of anti-wealthy discrimination is sales-pitch.</p>
<p>Williamsdad: I chuckled at your obviously tongue-in-cheek post that it’s unfair that rich kids be asked to “have the goods.”</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure there is no federal definition of “upper class”.</p>
<p>“Your high school and address is likely to give away your socioeconomic background anyway.”</p>
<p>I understand this to be true with instate colleges but do state colleges, say, across the country, check this information out?</p>
<p>I can’t imagine anyone “checks it out” exactly, but experienced admissions officers know these things from experience. Would it even be legal for them to check it out in the sense of looking up your address, checking income data for your neighborhood, etc.? Would it be ethical?</p>