<p>I didn't say superficial kids "do not exist in California." </p>
<p>I also don't think that "any high school teenager", especially wealthy ones are necessarily judgmental.</p>
<p>When you say things like "Lots of people like you do not survive here," it doesn't make the NE schools sound very good.</p>
<p>Sorry, I don't care if I make NE schools sound good or not.
Regardless of whatever I have to say, everyone already knows they are good schools. </p>
<p>I was just being as honest as I can, and you should be glad that you got some frank perspective from A STUDENT, whether the accounts are terribly polarized or not, because it's helpful choosing what's the best school for you in the end.
So whatever I say, you don't have to believe it or FEEL UPSET about it. Because firstable, you don't go here. So you don't represent any school that I talked about. Secondable, you don't even go to ANY boarding school yet, so you know the least among us.
No need to be so bitter, kid.
If you don't have a good answer to my question I posted in this thread, just WALK AWAY. Because I was not looking for your feedback on what I had to say about my own school, especially from some middle-school child who has never even attended these schools. I seriously doubt that your meager knowledge can be any help to what I want to know.</p>
<p>poss791, I attended boarding school only for one year (one of the ten schools organization schools) as a freshman, then left because it was - shall we say, a little overwhelming for a then-13-year-old. however, several cousins go to boarding schools in the NE and I understand what you're talking about. Yes, I am going to end up graduating from my public school (they're good schools and the best independent day schools are an hour away so it was kinda far to travel for 3 years) however, when I have been to summer programs like the ones you have been to, I've somehow ended up hanging out with other NE prep kids because my cousins go, my brother's going next year, and honestly I DO wear green and pink lilly and sperrys and L.L. Bean and like it. so that's who I feel comfortable hanging around with, and those kids tend not to be public school kids.</p>
<p>poss791....can you tell me what school you go to so I can be sure not to apply?</p>
<p>even if you applied, YOU WILL NEVER GET IN.</p>
<p>Well my friends in the business world tell me that prep school connections go a LONG way - especially if you went to Hotchkiss. </p>
<p>All of these firms are either owned or run (at one time) by Hotchkiss Alums:</p>
<p>Goldman Sachs, Lehmann Brothers (too bad it died), Morgan Stanley, The Capital Group, Citigroup (Investment division).</p>
<p>These companies were run or owned by Hotchkiss alums:</p>
<p>Ford, Chrysler, Mars, Dodge, 7-Eleven, Coke (exec. VP), Dolby, IBM, Columbia Pictures, The Boston Red Sox, Time Warner (CNN time magazine etc), Phillip Morris, Detroit Lions, Bloomberg, , Clear Channel, GM (partially), Banfi Vinters, Brystol-Myers, R.R. Donnelley, Mead weastavco, General Mills, American Motors, C-Net, Sante fe railroad, NMSC (yes the Psats stuff), and many many more. </p>
<p>My business friends tell me that being a Hotchkiss alum in the business world is a HUGE bonus. Their alumni network on wall street is second to none. They really do look out for each other. Just look at how time was founded. Two Hotchkiss alums made a magazine funded and published by another Hotchkiss alum. These connections run deep. My friends tell me on wall street a Hotchkiss diploma is more useful than one from Wharton- personally i think that is hyperbole but it is an interesting thought to consider. </p>
<p>They say its almost impossible for a Hotchkiss alum to be unemployed on wall street and promotions come quickly. </p>
<p>"it seems to me that Hotchkiss greases the wheels of capitalism." Lemisch (Yale Historian). I think he is right. So yeah boarding school connections run deep.</p>
<p>Here is something I posted a while back at how far Hotchkiss connections stretch. </p>
<p>Hotchkiss has a long illustrious list of successful people in a particular are from a single school then that does suggest that that school is good a feeding people into that particular area much the same way as ivie admit rates are used to judge whether a school is good a feeding into ivy institutions. It's the exact same concept. So the Alumni lists DO say a lot about a school. Furthermore particularly in business it's not just learning the skills of business that these schools teach that is important, its the connections that these schools afford to you at a young age that can help later in your career.</p>
<p>For instance Tom Werner (current owner of the Boston Red Sox) went to Hotchkiss as a scholarship boy but due to the support he received from fellow hotchkiss alumni he is now a near billionaire if not a billionaire. Henry Luce the founder of time, Fortune, and sports illustrated magazine could not have been as successful as he was without his fellow partner Hat Hotchkiss Briton hadden and their publisher Linnen who also happens to be a Hotchkiss Alumnus.</p>
<p>And then there are the Bushes (the ones that attended Hotchkiss not Andover), they helped Fay Vincent another Hotchkiss alumnus raise capital and now Vincent is ceo of columbia pictures and a billionaire. And then there are two of the biggest financial institutions out there Morgan Stanley and Goldmann Sachs, members of the weinberg family serve on the hotchkiss board of trustees and are alumni, the former president of goldmann sachs Jphn thornton is chairman of the board at hotchkiss and his son is currently at Hotchkiss, and the founder of Morgan Stanley harold Stanley is also a hotchkiss alumnus as well as the former president of Bloomberg LP Peter grauer.</p>
<p>In the field of media the founders of one of the biggest advertising companies clear channel the Mays family members are Hotchkiss graduates (texas A&M named their business school after them), The former president of NBC Don Durgin is an Alumnus, Members of the Ford, Chrysler , Dodge, Pillsbury (of Pillsbury dough boy)and thompson families (founder of 7-11) are all Hotchkiss alumni, as well as the Mars brothers of M&M fame. And lovelace who some say is the creator of mutual funds was a hotchkiss alumnus. and many many more. I have heard from various informal sources that hotchkiss has produced the most billionaires out of any school on earth and i do not doubt it. Business wise at least I would certainly agree with fun if fun Hotchkiss is the best.</p>
<p>When your in a job interview at a large Fortune company (fortune was created by a hotchkiss grad) and the guy sitting on the other side of the table may very well be a Hotchkiss grad too. So a Hotchkiss ring goes a LONG way in the business world.</p>
<p>hahah. retract our fangs, shall we all?</p>
<p>Whoa, poss791, calm down. east-vs-west didn't say anything to justify your personal attacks. Go back and look it over...you got awfully testy, awfully quickly.</p>
<p>Perhaps if wall-streeters didn't trust school rings and were less cliquey, there would be more of a meritocracy in business and we would be in less trouble? I'm just sayin'.</p>
<p>I never understood that the first post was actually meant as a criticism. It reads more like the OP wants to leverage boarding school connections in the future and is happy to do so because they are His People.</p>
<p>Wow poss791...if you cant name your school then it must not be top-tier therefore don't put anyone down and say they can't get in. And if it is good for you...</p>
<p>I respected your original post but all that other crap was unnecessary. You sound like the kind of kids who go after the ones who can't defend themselves, just hope you don't every run into someone like me. Because you'll most likely end up looking stupid...I don't care if I'm applying now and your in, cuz frankly I plan on being in your position next year or I wouldn't be waste my time applying.</p>
<p>Just being honest :)</p>
<p>Frankly, you seem like an excessively bored individual who needs to get out more. </p>
<p>It's quite sad, really.</p>
<p>Oh well, whatever floats your boat. ;o)</p>
<p>we all wanna stick to people who are alike. this is our protective shell. i definitely know that i hate the classes in my schedule where i have no one in my group there. it's like im defenseless. like im a snail with no shell.</p>
<p>True that the preppy j.crew/sperries group is DEFINITELY at all the boarding schools (much less worse than it use to be...) there is a place for everyone at all schools. Personally coming from the jcrew/sailing background i LOVE the preppiness of boarding school, but I do have a lot of friends that aren't preppy....
One of my best friends even makes fun of me and my other friend for being so preppy calling us "nutless preps" and other names jokingly, but she's not preppy and she definitely fits in.
I do know what your talking about with the "bond"....you feel more connected to people who go to boarding school just because you've been through most likely similar experiences and you have a lot to talk about together, but I love all my friends from back home
I told my mom the other day that if I was going to school at home I'd want to go to the public high school because I like my friends more there than the ones I have at my old private school....It just shows that it doesn't matter where you go to school everyone can get along.</p>
<p>Actually poss, my daughter said something about this the other day, and I think she had a similar experience to yours. </p>
<p>She was looking through "FACEBOOK" and seeing her old friends from middle school and summer camps and she was wondering how she had so many "mutual friends" (is that the official online term? sorry, moms are not familiar with online devices!) with everyone at different boarding schools. </p>
<p>If you think about it, the students who attend boarding schools come from similar privileged and upperclass backgrounds, more or less. Looking at it from the bigger picture, you will realize that they all seem to run in the same circle and live in the same society. </p>
<p>For another instance, the middle school that my children graduated from sends kids to different private high schools each year. It always goes something like 2 students to Deerfield, 3 to Exeter, 1 to Choate, 1 to Milton, etc. So it makes sense that they all have friends at each school, after they graduate, and it creates a big "network." </p>
<p>So yes, I believe a tight network exists for the boarding school community. When you grow up, you will go into the society and have to meet all sorts of new people for business, parties, and whatever other things that adults do. Like the "businesskid" said above, this social network will get you far in getting a job, making a contract and business deals. In some ways, high school network is more powerful than college one, because the alumni group is much tighter. People network is very important to one's sucess, perhaps more so than the name of the college you graduated from. </p>
<p>I sent my children to boarding schools, not particularly for the great education but for this network. My children could have received just as excellent education at our local public high school, living under guidance of parents comfortably and having cars to drive. But I wanted them to also have the opportunity to hang out and grow up with kids from nice families, too. Boarding schools aren't entirely about the education. Some of the friendships built there will last your lifetime.</p>
<p>^ if you truly want success, as hard as it is for people to swallow it down, you have to hang with the right people. that isn't a secret, but with all the "liberal, free, EQUAL -********ted- america" thing lately, some find it superficial rather than logical. it's practically like a linear equation; move privileged friends = more potential success. </p>
<p>so let's all listen to prepschoolmom, shall we?:)</p>
<p>westcoast_...I'm disappointed!!... you don't have any mileage yet, any bumps and bruises, any real knowledge of the world and, in particular, the reality that success is a function of being healthy, happy and giving back to others more than it is of money, fame, power or elite cliques. Some of the greatest relationships you will ever have, with your kids' schoolteachers, the nurses who treat your family when you're sick, the guy behind the deli counter who always has a kind word.....and this list is endless......are no less valuable than your relationship with the investment banker from Harvard you play golf with on the weekends.</p>
<p>I'm an old coot compared to you and have lived my life both with people of power and privilege and people who didn't have two nickles in their pocket, but would give you the shirt off their back. It's relationships with this second group that have been the most meaningful for me.</p>
<p>^ I said success, not happiness. some of my best friends don't even want to spend a dollar more than necessary when buying stuff for themselves and do not have the luxurious option to bribe people with extravagant gifts. but they are the sweetest people i have ever met (that also goes for people who CAN bribe people with extravagant gifts but choose not to)</p>
<p>but you are right (:</p>
<p>You guys ever read that book "Outliers"? ...Connections arent EVERYTHING. But definetely can be a significant part of your future career depending what your getting into. If your going to be a doctor...really it just how hard you work. Lawyer or business man...I think it can come in useful.</p>
<p>But what do I know...just a highschool kid</p>
<p>mpicz - I heard this book was not as strong as Gladwell's earlier two, but I'll check it out. Another really good book, that I think is sufficiently readable to the bright young kids on this site, is Fooled by Randomness by Nasim Taleb. He (and it) does a very good job of exposing the role of chance/luck in a person's life, and how it works mathematically. It's pretty eye-opening, especially today when so many "geniuses" in the financial markets are suddenly finding themselves on the sidewalk in front of their buildings, stunned, holding a cardboard box filled with the personal mementos that they kept on their desk before they were terminated or their firm went belly up.</p>