I live in the Northwest and Canada is not a foreign country, what are you talking about?! OTOH the NY accent is one of the worst foreign accents I’ve heard, right up there with the Southern accent.
I’ve also lived in the east coast and there’s definitely far more snobbery out there when it comes to college. Just about every car has a college decal on the rear windshield. However no upper middle class parent would be caught dead with a State U decal on his/her car…SUNY, UCT, UMass, Rutgers, Stevens…shudders.
Here in the Northwest you rarely see any car with a college decal. Those that do usually display one of the local StateU. Anyone who puts on an east coast school decal, especially HYP would instantly be seen as a snob, extremely tacky.
The west coast is so much more chill. There’s no going back east for me, or my children. The left coast is the right coast.
Interesting observation - Here in No. CA it seems fashionable to put state schools all over your car - whether it’s a UC, CSU or neighboring flagships like Oregon, Arizona, ASU, Boise State, that’s all we seem to see on cars.
@cmsjmt, maybe if you live on the east coast, you need a trophy.
When was the last time somebody asked me which school I went to?
Never? I don’t remember that college question.
This 75 year old guy who lives in NY was out on the west coast. I met him in a shoe store yesterday. The guy said to me “I went to Lowell High School in SF”
The only letter I ever kept was my theater letter… never got the jacket because they were too expensive.
Around here (SE Michigan), it’s pretty rare to see college bumper stickers on cars and no one really cares where one went to college. Though I get some teasing from Walmart Wolverines because I turned down U of M for undergrad.
I’m sure in higher SES areas where people are more competitive there is more discussion about which “elite” or “non-elite” school one’s kids went to. Around my neck of the woods, people don’t give two hoots. Actually, it’s pretty rare to even talk about colleges now that I think about it. The only time it ever comes up for me is when people ask what I do and I say “professional student” lol
I had a tshirt from Brown, with the school name in the upper left hand corner of my tshirt, that fell appropriately above my… um chest. A male friend happened to be waling towards me. He yelled out “what color is the other one?”
@Cameron121, in CA (and almost the entire US outside maybe the Northeast), the vast majority of college grads would have gone to state schools, so that shouldn’t be that surprising.
Probably because the number of public school alumni greatly outnumbers the number of private school alumni. Also, the stickers or license plate frames with public school names include those from further away, like Michigan, Texas, Purdue, Stony Brook, USNA, IIT (Delhi, Madras), etc…
However, I do sometimes see stickers or license plate frames with the names of private schools like Stanford, USC, Harvey Mudd, etc…
Car decals in this decidedly upper middle-class neighborhood reflect a mix of schools, and it is common to see decals for Penn State, Pitt, or Temple.My own kids think college stickers are tacky, so none on our cars.They have also mentioned that there are online dating services that restrict membership based on the name of the college and think those are tacky as well.
Students at our high school who take mostly AP/honors classes typically either go to an elite school or take a substantial merit scholarship, or go to Schreyer(which does not offer much by the way of merit money.) Sometimes families are full pay for a private school if they want their student to have the support that comes from small classes taught and managed by full professors.
One other consideration for high income families is that by taking a lower-cost option, there is more money left over to help a child launch and/or change career direction if interests change or the job market shifts after graduation, or as a safety net if a child runs into unexpected difficulty in getting to graduation.
Many elite school students who are pre-med seem to take one or more pre-req classes over a summer or two (viewing this as necessary to maintain a reasonable course load), and this can further add to the cost of college.
I believe prejudices already exist, but people’s attitudes depend on the individual and their cumulative experiences, not just whether or not they were accepted at an elite school.
I think one of the causes for people’s attitudes is the tendency our society has to see and value only one learning style and believe that someone either has it or they don’t, with the not so subtle message that it means they’re either intelligent or they’re not. People who test well are rewarded as early as grade school by being switched into more elite tracks and money is spent on those programs at the expense of others. However, there are different types of intelligences. I try to recognize every kid for whatever skills they’ve been blessed with and celebrate whichever school they attend.
When people speak of colleges in terms of “intellectual thickness” and refuse to consider certain schools (such as cc’s), they’re reinforcing the belief that people are sorted primarily by intelligence when relative wealth is an overriding factor for many. When they believe that we can even sort people intellectually based on a multiple choice test, they’re as much a part of the problem as the neighbors we’re complaining about.
I do observe when I go east there are a lot more college decals than out here in the Midwest. There just isn’t as much badge value out here. No one thinks twice about the class Val going to U if Illinois and no one frets that he didn’t apply to the Ivy League
No college decals for me. Why would I junk up a perfectly good car with any decal or bumper sticker?
The topic question refers to “upper income families”? Who are they?
One of the best objective reasons for many top students to consider an Ivy League (or other top private) college is for the excellent financial aid. For families earning up to ~2X to ~3X the national median income, the net price to attend an “Ivy” (/peer college) may well be more or less competitive with the net price to attend an in-state public university.
Cost becomes a dilemma for families in the upper middle / lower upper “donut hole” (> ~$150K/y)
If you only begin to face this dilemma when your kid is in high school, it may be too late.
The best time to start addressing it is as soon as each child is born (if not before).
If you’re in the “donut hole”, your kid is already in HS, and you have not been saving until now, then chances are you are in no position to seriously consider a $60K+/year private college. You’re engaged in this debate because you already know you can’t afford it and want to make yourself feel better about not having those options. One way to feel better is to remind yourself they are not options for anyone but a tiny fraction of all HS students. Most kids go to college within ~150 miles of home.Then, they do fine.
My kid and I both have her school decal on our cars- though I. Went with the discreet rear side window placement. Where I live there are a plethora of school stickers, so we fit right in. On the other hand, the ones that annoy me are the stick figure family decals- THOSE I would love to ban!
Off topic - I saw a car the other day which had the stick family - father, mother, four kids - and the father had jail bars on him. I kid you not. I actually snapped a picture to show my family. Why on earth would you “decal-ize” your spouse being in jail?
“When people speak of colleges in terms of “intellectual thickness” and refuse to consider certain schools (such as cc’s), they’re reinforcing the belief that people are sorted primarily by intelligence when relative wealth is an overriding factor for many”
Both are factors. Both can be true. Certain colleges ARE “intellectually thicker” but by the same token, not everyone grows up in a family where elite colleges are prized and/or the money is available. Anyway, I think most adults in the real world are fully aware that there are many smart, accomplished adults who went to East Nowheresville State. There are just a few pockets of ignorance otherwise – among naive high schoolers, people who are new to this country, and occasionally, the odd adult poster who is under some delusion that the world rises and sets on Wall Street. But you have to take their opinions with the grain of salt they deserve.
Most schools offer magnets these days–so you can add or remove at will. Not going to deface your car!
I think plenty of people add the magnets because the school gave them one and they are intended as free advertising FOR THE SCHOOL as much as anything. Not everybody is trying to “brag.” Sometimes it’s just the opposite–trying to introduce a specific school to the neighborhood or area–kind of like those school “open house” lawn signs springing up all over the place.
And, frankly, seeing the various college magnets or decals driving my kids back and forth to their schools over the years gave me some great ideas of colleges I’d never considered before (or heard of).
OTOH the NY accent is one of the worst foreign accents I’ve heard, right up there with the Southern accent.
