It’s an anonymous poll conducted by The Crimson and the Yale Daily News.
An additional 19% reported family income of $250,000 - $500,000.
Yes Ivies are full of rich people. They are also full of people without much money They try and put together a diverse group of kids. Sometimes the really rich kids have difficulty if their academics are not great. So if you dont have a lot of money dont worry about going to an Ivy.
How do you know which kids are “really rich”? Are you taking into account the subgroups that are either;
A) not rich, but trying to appear that way
B) wealthy and not showing it
And, for that matter, is there any difference between the kids who actually have money independently and their parents having the money?
^^^^this
@JustOneDad I don’t think a lot of 18 year olds are rich independently from their parents.
Despite attempts by the Ivies to socially engineer diverse groups for incoming classes and then housing, there are plenty of students who choose elite clubs to distance themselves socially from the broader population.
At Princeton, the eating clubs (co-ed at least) have a range of affiliation–some based on teams, some on NYC backgrounds, money or connections. At Harvard the final clubs choose the moneyed, the prep school connected, or sports teammates. Successful candidates need the right clothes, tuxes, family name etc. to make a positive impression in the punch process. Dartmouth, Penn, and Cornell have their frats; Yale the not-so-secret societies.
Being some of the oldest colleges in the country, they have some of the most ancient traditions passed down which do not necessarily adhere to their administrations’ progressive objectives.
But this social stratification also takes place at state U’s, LACs and other private schools. To the OP-- concentrate on your own academic goals, and ignore the self-segregators.
My D isn’t in an Ivy league but she’s in a “meets full needs” LAC with a huge endowment and reputation for lots of wealth in the student body. As a middle class student, she does notice the disparity but it’s not a big deal. Yes, there is a pocket of students who wear nothing but Lilly Pulitzer. Yes, she’s rolled her eyes a bit about someone thinking 150 bucks is a “real deal” for a pair of designer flip flops. However, there are plenty of grounded kids of wealth whose parents aren’t indulging them with limitless bank accounts. They may go to Europe with their parents over the summer but they have less spending money than D does during the school year (because D has steady income from a campus job.) 60 percent of the school is getting some kind of financial help. In fact, D’s roommate is below the poverty line so all her expenses are covered by the school including some living money. Outside that pocket of kids obsessed with their designer footwear, the majority are too slammed with school work for weekend ski trips. Plus, wealthy schools tend to have a lot of equalizers… D’s school, the laundry facilities are free, most of the campus activities are free or in the 5 dollar range, the dining packages come with more dining dollars than most kids can use so it’s not a problem to hit the cafe’s, restaurants or campus market with friends, the school is a bubble so just getting off campus to spend money isn’t that accessible.
Remember that just because you haven’t had the same experiences doesn’t mean you are less experienced.
one thing on the percent of people who receive aid…and I should probably start a separate thread on this…but i’m starting to view it as the numbers game that it is. Take our family, for example…D got into uChicago…they offered us $4000 annually…so the total cost per year will now be $60,000 instead of $64,258. Yet when drawing up the class stats, she would now be lumped into the “60% of our students receive financial aid” bucket.
I can’t speak for other schools, but at Yale there are quite a few rich students, but there are certain factors that limit the impact this has on student life. First, the vast majority of students live on campus, and all residential housing costs the same. There are no expensive dorms or cheap dorms. Similarly, most students eat most of their meals in the dining hall. Most campus activities are free. Most people dress casually most of the time. Most students are involved in activities that don’t really relate much to wealth–like musical groups, where your musical abilities are what matter. There may be some situations in which wealth differences are noticed–such as trips, vacations, off-campus meals, etc., but I don’t think it’s a constant irritant.
There are some circles in which the students tend not to eat dinner in the meal halls and go out every evening. I imagine that could be hard for someone on a fixed budget to participate in.
I’m sorry if you thought that was what I said. I didn’t quantify them.
I have seldom found people with means off-putting. Many are humble, many are generous. I have known old money kids wearing their big brother’s hand me down clothes and super friendly; I have known striving middle class kids dripping Gucci and attitude. Most people wouldn’t mind being rich, so why would we treat the “rich” as something we don’t want to be around?
@snarlatron Oh, there are a lot of reasons that come up when the subject is studied.
Or course, there’s envy, which is pretty self-explanatory; money, desirable houses, cars, luxury goods. Then there is the notion that rich people don’t work or don’t work very hard, although that may be somewhat related to the envy people experience when they feel like they are struggling and someone else appears to have it “so easy”.
You also see the complaints that they don’t contribute anything to society, just suck up resources at a disproportionate rate.
People can mistrust the wealthy on the theory that they got their wealth primarily by stepping on other people. In the case of someone who has become wealthy in the stock market, someone had to lose for there to be a winner, right? Don’t partner with them because they are sharks and will eat you.
And then there is the belief that wealthy people don’t follow the rules to move up; that they cheat. There are examples like this on CC where students have complained that many of the students ranked higher than they are cheaters. Sometimes, people who have tried something and failed rationalize that you have to cheat in order to make it at something.
You’ll also see a lot of bitterness over the attitudes and airs that wealthy people might exhibit, particularly if a person feels he has been personally snubbed or dissed in some way.
And, because all of these things have, in fact, occurred, it’s not too hard for people to perceive that they happen more than they do.