<p>zante goes to the private school to end all private schools... ;)</p>
<p>and you must then go to her school with her???</p>
<p>no. but in nyc all the private schools are like one big family. im sure we know some of the same people. in fact.im positive. :)</p>
<p>and to think she kicked Exeter.....what a troll she is.</p>
<p>i think she was just expressing what she truly sees at her school each day. i guess she doesn't feel the need to kiss a** to the private school powers that be! no problems there...</p>
<p>Exeter has diversity in sooooo many ways. Including income diversity.</p>
<p>hmm. well true diversity does not lie in numbers. i can tell you that from experience. my school does prep for prep, but once the kids get here (the ones that are so proudly touted on the covers of viewbooks) they are often relegated to the sidelines, except to reemerge sometimes as the basketball star or the black friend who confirms that the student body is in fact not racist. and i dont think its just my school like this. its the same all over nyc and at at least one boarding school i have friends at. i love my school, its fabulous, but theres no use in kidding anyone.</p>
<p>It is true that some kids who are "fly ins" don't make an effort to join, reach out to new groups of people....that much is true. I could make a few choice comments but I won't. So.....I suppose the college experience is somewhat the same. I do see it a bit.....</p>
<p>then again, i think my school (and most elite privates) do a better job in the way of diversity than some public schools can. My friend at Byram Hills told me that theres one black kid in her grade, and that's just because he's the son of some baseball player.</p>
<p>I had an amazing experience at Exeter and love the school. I am also having a great experience at Penn and am loving it too. As for the diversity....well I guess I have seen more at Exeter although Penn has a lot of internationals which I love.....I am not aware of as much diversity in income. Perhaps it is just harder to be aware here. I know they have big numbers for aid....</p>
<p>I discount most parochial schools because the have large classes and far fewer resources than most private schools. I think in most places they are used because kids can get some religion or because the schools are safer than the local public. Of ciurse the are the Sacred Heart schools and a few others that function as private schools,</p>
<p>I think Zant is making these statements because it's just how her private school was. Not all of them are like that at all. But, I've been amongst the students of her school directly, and I didn't see all that much diversity from a first, cursory glance.</p>
<p>My public school in comparison was absolute crap. It hardly sends anyone to schools in the top 25. Nobody is really told about SATs or SAT2s or college or even IB tests until the last minute. No one gets any prep like certain private schools do. Schools like Zant's or Hazmat's send an insanely high amount of people to Ivies annually.</p>
<p>I mean sure, I'd rather go to a private school. The resources are better and there is more prep for admissions. At a public school you have to be a lot more resourceful and work a lot harder to get to the same level as those in private school. Even then, you're still behind, as many people at Zant's high school, for instance, have inherently better connections. There are really not too many connections of the same caliber that can be made from a bad public high school in Oregon.</p>
<p>At the law firm I work at, there are a bunch of interns from NY who are going to Ivies who went to private schools (or at least really good public schools like Stuyvesant or however you spell it) and have supplemental prep programs. I have a feeling not all of them got there on their own merit -- they were just told what to do to look good on paper. Really, if you go to a private school and have such a prep program, and you can't get into an Ivy, there's just no hope. All those resources are flying in front of your face in such a position and there's no reason why they shouldn't give you that extra boost.</p>
<p>It doesn't matter what kind of school you go to, as long as you are truly kickass you can still get into a good college.</p>
<p>Nice comments in your post. While you mention "on their own merit" I will remind you that many internships, real jobs and opportunities for students come directly thru nepotism or "connections". It could be a very deserving student from good school whose roommate's family owns a business and knows the student needs money from summer earnings......so merit is not so much the issue as having knowledge and opportunity that would otherwise be unavailable. While I am certain that some interns are not as well prepared...others are well prepared but have never had to work for anything......laud their advantage and put forth little effort. Alum connections work later when applicants are selected for interview of applicants are solicited thru a network. Welcome to the "real world" of business.</p>
<p>Well I did get this job through Zant, yes. She was a connection. I am not saying connections are bad: It's just that a lot of people at private schools have a ton of connections and will inherently have more than those at public schools, most likely. She had this job through her program, another sort of connection.</p>
<p>The idea of connections bug me a little, although I know they are necessary to get ahead in the business world and life. Yesterday at a legal roundtable I went to, they were emphasizing how all the interns should go out and make as many connections as they could. I felt this was a bad way to go about it all... it feels like they teach you to go around making false friendships in hopes that it will eventually turn out lucrative for you. I'd rather make genuine friendships, and have any "profitable occurrence" that results from that friendship be nothing more than a fortunate event of that true connection.</p>
<p>You are confusing connections......it is a contact, a potential mentor in your situation, a folk who could write a letter of recommendation or when they have a project contact your for an opportunity.......never confuse contacts with friends.....on occassion they will merge but not usually.</p>
<p>But usually in order to get a good letter of recommendation for example, do you not, on some level, have to be friends with that individual in order for them to get a better glimpse of your personal side and not necessarily how you work (in itself)? I mean yes you can have a connection based off work alone, but the greatest "back deals" tend to be on a more personal level.</p>
<p>I'm sorry I generalized about all private schools, obviously I've only been to one, and I was describing that one specifically, but to say that they are all more diverse than public schools is just a much a generalization as my saying that they're not. You're basing what you believe on YOUR school, as I am basing my beliefs on what I had seen everyday. So don't go around calling me an ignorant poster when you are doing the exact same thing. </p>
<p>Btw, diversity is completely subjective. You listed Jews to back up your point about diversity. Well my school is like 80% jewish...I hope you don't think that means it's diverse. And as for your boarding school, perhaps people come from all around the country and some other countries as well, but for my day PREP school, a good chunk of the kids were from the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side of nyc. </p>
<p>Hazmat, I didn't kick Exeter. One of my best friends went there, and I think it's a great school. I just regret that I wasn't specific in my descriptions of private school, what I should have said was MY school. But perhaps that kind of narrowmindedness was a nasty habit I caught in MY private school...</p>
<p>How does having a portion of our class being Jewish not considered diversity? Just because they are not a race? But you're right on one account...having 80% Jewish is not diversity...and neither would having 80% white, 80% chinese, 80% eskimos, 80% dogs be diversity either. I think you are completely missing the point on diversity.</p>
<p>No, my point was that diversity is subjective...in an almost all black school, the whites would contribute to diversity, while it may be the opposite case in a different school.
I don't want to start arguing about whether Jews are a race (my opinion is that they're not, but you can have religious diversity...though you said "the rest are white" and I'm not sure what you mean there...since Jews can be white...)</p>
<p>But what is your point on diversity? Do you still maintain that private schools are more diverse? I stopped saying that private school are not diverse because I realized my assumptions were based on my school only. I think you have to realize also, that saying private schools ARE more diverse is also a vast generalization.</p>
<p>Maybe where you're from being Jewish is a rare thing, but at least in NYC, many <em>many</em> people are Jewish, and at most prep schools they are the majority. Therefore, your point about all the Jewish kids in your grade wasn't impressive to either Zante or I; to us that just further reinforces how undiverse it is!</p>