<p>“To be honest, the true “preppy” colleges are of course the Ivies–”, actually, I would say 'true preppy" is where the majority or a large percentage of students actually attended private ‘prep schools’ as listed in post 58.</p>
<p>That is one way to look at it, but boarding schools have changed in the past few decades–although they are still dominated by wasps, they have become more diverse. I wasn’t saying that going to an Ivy League makes you preppy. I was saying that real preps go to Ivy League schools, and that’s that. Unless they don’t get in, in which case they go to another top school–Bowdoin, Connecticut College, or Seven Sister schools (these are examples. I’m not saying they’re the only ones).</p>
<p>I say that private LAC’s are the last bastion of true WASP preppiness; it is the IVY league-the original home of the WASP elite(the origin of prep) that has become too diversified(I think Harvard is now approaching 50% minority) to really represent a preppy mentality. Walk around Harvard then walk around Colby, Davidson, or Washington and Lee and see for yourself. Those are the students that are prep school educated, WASP in background and the old money wealth is quite apparent. I am not saying that it is a good thing, just addressing the original topic posed.</p>
<p>There is also a very distinct difference in dress styles between New England / NE Prep, and Southern Prep. New England / NE Prep is almost a dressed-down look – LL Bean sweaters, dad’s old sailing jacket, Sperry Topsiders that have seen better days, a rep tie fished from the bottom of the backpack. A female New England / NE Prep doesn’t have matching / coordinating everything; if anything, she’s more sporty looking, her makeup consists of chapstick and sunscreen and can whup your butt in squash or lacrosse. Southern Prep is more of a dressed-up, matching, coordinated look, with brighter colors (think pink, green, Lilly Pulitzer). A female Southern Prep might wear a “darling” sundress with pearls and every accessory on her body matches just so. If you’re going to talk about preppy, you need to identify which subgroup is of interest.</p>
<p>Washington and Lee in Lexington Va. S. is a Jr. - I would say 90% are preppy. Girls wear Lilly JCrew Hunter boots and Barbour Coats etc. Updated Preppy Handbook. Boys wear cords, khakis, polos, button downs, rainbows topsiders,LL Bean… Very well dressed campus. 80% involved in greek life</p>
<p>Pizzagirl that was an important distinction. I think that considering the Southern style of dress, you can find more schools with kids who dress preppy but aren’t really. It is easier to buy a Lilly dress than it is to wear out your father’s sailing jacket or a pair of Topsiders. This is why I maintain that the Ivy Leagues and other highly selective LAC’s in New England really are the places that the true preps turn to. Of course, I definitely believe that W&L and Vandy have many real Southern preps–but they probably also have just as many posers.</p>
<p>Colgate, Holy Cross, Davidson, W&L, Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Miami University of Ohio, a.k.a. J Crew U. I’m an alumnus and can confirm that this nickname is completely appropriate.</p>
<p>Some surprises:</p>
<p>Denison
Ohio Wesleyan
Bucknell</p>
<p>All have quite a preppy element. BTW, the “popped collar” thing started with sailors who wanted to protect their neck from getting sunburned. It evolved (or devolved) into a preppy “look.”</p>
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<p>Actually, you’d be shocked at the concentration of students from top prep schools(and the amount of serious money) at Duke/Vandy/Davidson. The Ivies care a lot about diversity, and they’re less likely to be influenced by money or a hs transcript with a famous name. For example, a few years ago, Dalton in NYC sent 7 to Duke but none to Harvard.</p>
<p>10mwil still has a 1965 mindset; the present reality is much different. Look at the top twenty private LAC’s-look at the percentage of students who attended private prep schools, look at the percentage that are ‘full pay’ and you have the ‘real thing’(preppy wise). Poster Mini called this the ‘entitlement index’(post #58)-but it is just another name for the moneyed elite and his index shows where they go. The IVY league doesn’t need or particularly want them anymore, but many others still do.</p>
<p>Look, I’m not saying that every prep goes to an Ivy League school. And I’m not saying that the students at the top LACs aren’t “real.” I’m saying that the truly old-money, New England, industry or finance based families send their kids to Ivy League schools. OF COURSE these kids aren’t highly represented at the Ivy Leagues–because they aren’t highly represented in America to begin with!</p>
<p>“they are where the old-money, real preps go.”</p>
<p>Nah, a lot of the old-money, real preps don’t want or need to work that hard. Yes, some still go there, but they’re an ever-shrinking demographic. If your great-grandfather founded a bank, you don’t need straight A’s in school to have a great life, and you know it. People whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower have nothing to prove. The Ivies are largely filled with immigrants and the children of (recent) immigrants. Strivers, not scions.</p>
<p>Just look at the stats. Asians and Jews together comprise less than 10% of the U.S. population, but about half the student body at Harvard College. The vast majority of the immigration to America for those two groups happened in the twentieth century. The Official Preppy Handbook came out ~30 years ago, and the change in the Ivies had already occurred at that point (though the book named Princeton as an exception).</p>
<p>I would disagree, I think that while in many wealthy families you end up with bon vivants for kids, there are many in which the original work ethic and the desire to live up to family expectations pushes a kid to do very well academically and thus obtain an Ivy League education. The top boarding schools send more students to Ivy League schools than they do to any other schools. </p>
<p>While you’re definitely right about the children of immigrants dominating at schools like Harvard, that doesn’t mean that the few old-money kids that still exist don’t go on to Ivy Leagues as well.</p>
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<p>I don’t see any basis in reality for your viewpoint. I go to one of the Ivy Prep schools in NYC, and it’s certainly not true here. First off, these types of kids are rarely the ones who will stay up late and grind to get the grades necessary for Ivies. They don’t need to go to Harvard or Wharton to get that ibanking job. They can spend four years partying at Vandy or Duke and still have a job at Goldman(or the family business) lined up for them. Secondly, very few families, even if they have the money, are comfortable with the idea of buying their kid’s place in college. It doesn’t happen as often as you’d expect.</p>
<p>10mwil:
there are thousands of private prep schools in this country and they send most of their students to private, non-Ivy league colleges. In the VERY NARROW context in which you are apparently seeing this thread-ie where do the top, New England prep schools(Choate, Deerfield, Andover, Exeter) send their students? To the local private colleges in their area(New England). Where do the well-to-do WASP families of the south, mid-west and West send their kids-mainly to private colleges in their local area. The thread was not just about the 'top boarding schools" but preps in general.</p>
<p>I feel like this conversation is going in circles. Yes, of course you are right–very few of the families and kids that I speak of are still around. The type of family and student that I am speaking of is extremely rare. </p>
<p>I think my viewpoint becomes more clear when I explain that the “preps” that you see at schools like Vandy or W&L that have jobs lined up at Goldman are NOT the preps that I am speaking of. We are arguing over to entirely seperate groups of people.</p>
<p>hubbell–I guess we posted similar thoughts around the same time. The reason I am approaching this so narrowly is that the new-money, fake prep atmosphere is far too common. When I read the original post, what came to mind was the kind of kids who are completely brand-oriented and wear Topsiders even if they’ve never been on a sailboat. I find these kids obnoxious and fake and overly materialistic, so I wanted to establish that if you are looking for kids who are NOT that type of preppy, you’ll probably find them in the Ivy League and at other top LACs in New England.</p>
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We are discussing the “preppiness” of school culture. If true old-money preps are so rare, then their number wouldn’t be large enough to have any impact on campus culture.</p>
<p>I disagree. I think that it is hard to avoid a preppy atmosphere when you’re at a college in New England, regardless of whether or not it is part of an Ivy League. I tend to think that, at a school like Dartmouth, for example, you have a very diverse student body, but you also have centuries-old traditions, architecture that sets the stage, high academic standards, and the preppy attitude of simplicity and acceptance of others–it is this amalgam that I think creates a true preppy atomosphere. </p>
<p>Miami U, on the opposite side of the spectrum, is filled with upper-middle-class kids who aren’t (on the whole) extremely bright, are brand-obsessed, and more exclusive in social situations.</p>