<p>I am a junior at a private school that I have attended since first grade. It is a reputable school with about 1000 mostly affluent students. I have enjoyed my time here but am ready for a change in college. I know I can look at aid and diversity numbers, but am more concerned with the feel of the school. I would like a school that feels less privileged and am therefore considering only public schools. The Ivies and schools like Duke and Vanderbilt seem "snobby" to me but in all honesty, I haven't visited them so I don't really know. Am I being too hasty in ruling out all private schools? I am in the top 10% of my class, have a 4.0+ GPA, 225 PSAT score, good ECs.. so I hope to have some options. Thanks for your advice.</p>
<p>Don't rule out the private U's until you've taken a look You may be doing yourself a disservice.</p>
<p>True. You can't know until you actually get a feel for the private schools what they're actually like. They are usually more generous with financial aid than public U's, so not all the students are privileged, but on average they're probably more privileged than those at public U's. Some of the more prestigious public universities (especially in the honors programs) can have a very privileged feel about them as well because most of their students went to schools like the one you attend. However, you since public schools are generally larger, you will get a much wider spectrum of people guaranteed than you would at a private U.</p>
<p>"Schools like Duke," eh? A lot of people here have money, true. However, there's a lot of us who don't. Over half of the students went to public schools, and I'm not out of place in jeans and a t-shirt. I've spent a fair amount of time at UNC Chapel Hill, and I have a lot of friends over there, so I can say with reasonable confidence that the student bodies of Duke and UNC aren't <em>that</em> different. The diversity is a lot less, which is something I'm still getting used to, but that's only to be expected. I wouldn't rule out private schools- some privates like Swarthmore and Rice have some of the most down to earth kids you'll find anywhere.</p>