Many kids in this group (connected/famous parents) have their own money or educational trusts, and they can make their own choices. Even the kids I was a nanny for, with merely a doctor father and lawyer mother had educational trusts for college and grad school. Their mom told me they could use it how they wanted (with a lot of guidance from the parents). The one who chose Yale may not have had much left for grad school, but it really was his choice to go to Yale.
And many kids of connected/famous parents can make their own money, real money, at a young age too. The Loughlin/Giannulli daughters were wealthy on their own through tiktok and makeup sales and other side hussles while in high school.
Is it because they’re paying somebody else? Or if one is paying directly for education that it counts? So, can Grandma go to Harry Winston or Tiffany’s and buy her grandkids diamonds and not have it count as a gift? Or only Columbia, Brown, USC, or other educational institutions?
It is very simple to know that. The parents wanted their kid at USC as a status symbol. That is extremely obvious from everything that they have said. The definition of a status symbol is that it is it adds status to you in your particular social group. That means that it’s something that is very popular in your social group.
In order for “having a kid attending USC” to be a status symbol among Laurie Laughlin’s social group, it has to be popular among the social group in which she is, i.e., Southern California Celebrities. Ergo, she wanted her kid to attend USC because it has many celebrities and kids of celebrities.
Celebrities are rarely attracted to colleges that do not have a strong academic reputation. A large part of the “halo” of the most popular colleges is that they are, supposedly, The College That Attended By The Smartest Students. Celebrities like attending these colleges (or celebrity parents like their children to attend these colleges) either to be surrounded by smart people or/and to gain the reputation of being smart simply by the fact that they attend such a college.
Once just has to go through the dozens of dumb articles on “The Smartest Celebrities” to see that every one of them includes the college that the celebrity attended. Those who attend an Ivy or a similar one are considered the “smartest”, whether they were accepted on their own merits, or because they or their parents were famous (or very wealthy, or legacies or athletes, etc).
Aside from it’s academic reputation, USC has a particularly strong reputation in the film industry, which makes it more attractive to people in the film industry than colleges with equivalent academics, like WashU.
One thing I learned years ago that when someone says something is obvious, it’s because it’s really not obvious.
The statement I originally had a problem with was, “They wanted their kids there because USC was where the kids of bigger celebrities attended college.”
If you’re going to say something like that, then I could say they only reason lawyers want their kids to go to Yale Law School is because more famous lawyers sent their kids there. Or the only reason doctors want their kids to go to Harvard Medical School is because more famous doctors sent their kids there. But I wouldn’t say it because I know it’s not true.
There were also non-celebrity parents who used “donations” to facility their kids’ admission into USC, and I seriously doubt their motivation to do that was any different than for celebrity parents.
I kept my kids’ 529 plans in place after graduation and make monthly contributions. While it could be used for their grad school, the driving force is that I am building up college funds in a tax favorable way to be used by our grandchildren (none currently exist).
To begin with, parents who can afford the sort of donations that ensure admission for their progent are generally celebrities in their own rights (Bill Gates, Elon Musk, etc, etc, etc).
However, wealthy parents who are not celebrities also send their kids to these colleges for the same reasons that celebrities do. They consider these colleges to be status symbols, and a big part of these colleges being status symbols is the fact that they were attended by celebrities and that celebrities send their kids to these colleges…
…which is what I wrote above.
Most of the parents engaged in the Varsity Blue scandal had the same motivations as any other parent who is trying to get their kids into “Elite” colleges as a status symbol. The Varsity Blues parents are only unique in the fact that they actually did engage in scams and lies in order to achieve this status symbol.
Some parents and students care about prestige and glamour, for sure. But for as long as I’ve been on CC, which has been a few years now, I can’t recall a thread discussing whether someone’s child should go to a particular school because the kids of famous celebrities went there.
I think many famous parents want their kids to go to USC because they like the school, because it is close to home (for the Hollywood crowd), because it has fun sports, because they went there, because the weather is nice…same reasons others want their kids to go to Notre Dame (alum, sports, religion) or Duke or BC or Northwestern. IMO, people don’t immediately think of the prestige like they do ror Stanford or Yale, but the schools are certainly excellent academically too. The Hollywood crowd might be drawn more to USC and the political people more to Georgetown. The Hollywood kids might be happier at USC because that’s the school they know, and they can keep their own agents and connections. They may have grown up cheering for the USC sports teams, just like kids from Alabama grew up cheering for Alabama so they want to go there.
If you want to go to a college with celebrities on campus, then head to CU. In the last two weeks the campus has been host to tons of sports and music stars who are friends of Prime and just want to be part of the in-crowd. This weekend will be even more wild. I don’t think anyone will choose to go to CU because of the kids of famous parents, except the 3 Sanders kids. By the time current applicants would get in and attend, those three will be gone.
Someone mentioned that Dean Cain and Barbara Corcoran (had to look her up) had kids attending. Nobody discussed whether that was a reason to go to High Point. In fact, the other comments that mentioned the two were somewhat mocking.
Simply saying that the kids of someone famous are attending a school does not qualify as a discussion about whether other people should send their kids there. At least not to me. It’s about as relevant as bringing up a school’s colors.
A statement and a discussion are two seperate things, so I don’t actually understand what point you are trying to make.
You can also write:
“Simply saying that a college has professors and classrooms does not qualify as a discussion about whether other people should send their kids there.”
“Simply saying that a car has an engine and wheels does not qualify as a discussion about whether somebody should buy that car”.
The entire point of the thread was the “Importance of kids of connected/famous parents”, not “Kids of connected/important people attending these colleges”. It is a discussion about the importance of having these kids attend a college, and some of us (including me) mentioned that fact that having these kids attend a college makes that college more attractive to other famous/important/wealthy parents.
That makes it a discussion, not a statement.
The fact that the kids of famous people attended or a attend a college may not be relevant for you, but that does not mean that it’s relevant for somebody else.
For example, the fact that a college has a successful football team was about as relevant to me as “the school’s colors”. I guess that means that we should dismiss this as being relevant for anybody else, right?
@twoinanddone had it right. There are a multitude of reasons people, including celebrities, send their kids to any school, including USC. Close to home, familiarity, good weather, fun sports, excellent academics. You were incorrectly suggesting the only reason the kids of celebrities attend USC is to impress others.
What you’ve been saying is akin to saying the singular reason kids go to Alabama is for its football team.
I’ll let you have the last word on why celebrities send their kids to USC if you feel the need.
People are a lot less complicated than many would like to believe. Seinfeld, Jeong, Springsteen - folks like to pretend they don’t care - and then they can actually meet them - It was pretty far from even an idea in my college search but recognize that anytime these actual celebrities show up - all those folks who say it doesn’t matter swarm them - so schools know the reality of what one says vs what one actually cares about.
Mark wahlberg’s daughter is in my daughter’s sorority at Clemson. Someone posted an article on a Facebook page about how he was spotted at the university this weekend, no mention of the fact that he was there for parents weekend. So many parent had no idea she goes there, I only know due to the sorority situation.