<p>Sorry, I just can’t go along with this legacy-for-legacy’s sake business. For years I tried to instill in Lake Jr. the wisdom that there are plenty of colleges besides my alma mater and the other Ivy’s that will expose him to a wonderful and fulfilling education and a successful career. I’m glad to say that he listened and never turned his nose down on the many fine colleges situated outside of the northeast.</p>
<p>A good friend whom is also an Ivy grad and in fact was nominated for his university’s governing board feels the same way and spent this past spring traveling with his h.s. senior to several non-Ivys for campus visits.</p>
<p>Very interesting article. I’m glad my oldest has learned to make her own way, and doesn’t rely on our direction for every little thing, including college decision.</p>
<p>Great article. I predict a movie will be made out of the subject, just like the “Nanny Diaries”. Many of us living the middle class average life are intrigued when those with bucket loads of money, power and influence struggle at things that may not be difficult for those with a ‘lesser’ status; to know that there are still some things that might not be able to be ‘bought’. </p>
<p>These rich Ivy Leaguers may sound awful, but they do exist. That’s the way the ball bounces and it’s not going to change in any significant way. I thought the article was interesting and plan to get the author’s book from the library.</p>
<p>How about Kenyon? - straight from a current professor at Kenyon, who noted that plenty of “B-caliber” (usually male) students are on campus, and not necessarily performing to academic expectation, confirming the observations of a Kenyon admissions officer in a related published article.</p>
<p>Loyola Marymount, but we were “inter-collegial”. Like interacial, but with an Ivy grad and an HBCU grad.</p>
<p>My “A” kid did not even APPLY to an Ivy. </p>
<p>The title of this thread is a little misleading. I’m having trouble relating to the “rich” and “hedge fund” idea. I don’t know what kind of “rich” you have to be to use an invoice amounting to $7,000 in child care credit for a high school junior. The story in the link is not talking about MOST parents who went to an Ivy. Perhaps that is not even what those parents have most in common.</p>
<p>I have to point out that the OP’s article is not about Ivy League grad parents. It’s about extremely wealthy parents. There’s a difference. While many Ivy League grads are wealthy it’s certainly not a given, and there are plenty of wealthy families without such education pedigrees.</p>
<p>I’d agree with the other posters who say that Ivy families encourage their kids to apply to the same schools as everyone else. Where I see an advantage to having an Ivy alum parent, beyond the vastly overstated legacy bump, is that </p>
<ol>
<li><p>parents who attended Ivy League schools have a sense of what it takes to get into such a school and may have been encouraging their kids to engage in the kinds of activities that make them more attractive to admissions committees, and</p></li>
<li><p>having been there, done that, the Ivy parents I know know that attending such a school is not the be-all, end-all of a college education. We all know people who graduated with us who went on to live spectacularly uninteresting lives. I’ve seen more angst among parents who have not attended “elite” schools but assume they’re a golden ticket to a happy successful life than among Ivy League grads.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I feel so sorry for the kids of parents like those in the article. I have know several parents like those in the article where talk of anything other than an Ivy for their children is anathema.</p>
<p>I, for one, will certainly read the book - the tidbits shared by The Post (same journalistic class as the NY Times - LOL!!) enticed me enough to want to read it.</p>
<p>Why would anyone be surpised the wealthy would want what they deem “best” for their children - we all want the same thing. The wealthy have more tools available to to them achieve their stated goals.</p>
<p>I attended one these “help seminars” run by a college consultant last year. I learned quite a bit as the consultant is well known. I’m glad I attended.</p>
<p>One of the saddest things about the case was that the Chow sons attended Georgetown and NYU, yet the parents were so obsessed with the Ivy League that they sued over their kids’ “failure”.</p>
<p>The electricians, plumbers, mechanics, etc. who started their post-secondary education at CC or trade school are likely more productive than the academically-marginal scion of inherited wealth who barely graduated with a bachelor’s degree with a 2.1 GPA in one of his/her not-very-academically-selective college’s “gut” majors and then went to “work” in his/her parents’ company.</p>
<p>Depends on how wealthy the parents are. If they are really loaded, they can probably buy their kids’ way into their alma maters (or any other school). The mere upper-middle class would have to be content to send their child to a small, quirky liberal arts school, or a fashionable big-city university. </p>
<p>Functionally, the kid would apply ED to a school that is nowhere near need-blind. Or the child would take a year off and travel the world, work at daddy’s law firm, or otherwise spruce up the old resume.</p>
<p>And on another CC thread, someone found an article which showed the father had no issues using “tutors” to do much of his graduate work at Harvard for him. In short…hypocrite… :(</p>
<p>I agree with Sue22. The point is that these parents are extremely wealthy, not necessarily where they went to school. In fact one of the protagonists’ Dad is a Duke alum, not an Ivy Leaguer, but he’s making a huge contribution to the school (building something, as I recall), so daughter Sadie’s chances are looking pretty good, despite less than spectacular grades. I’ve actually read a pre-publication copy of the book (that my wife brought home because of her line of work). Aside from the Duke dad, it didn’t even register to me (maybe it will to others) where the parents had gone to school). It was the conspicuous wealth of all but one of the kids. </p>
<p>The author’s sympathies are entirely with the kids. One boy’s case was particularly saddening, and the worst part is that he was surely based on the author’s actual experiences (the “we will say he’s black” quote from the Post article wasn’t that far off from something that happened in the book). It’s very interesting reading, and effective in how it encourages sympathy in readers for kids who seem to pretty much have it made.</p>
<p>He hired the same tutor to write papers for his boys. For that family it was all about the credential. They didn’t seem to care whether their boys actually received an education, just whether they could wave a piece of paper under the noses of the Hong Kong rich and powerful. He was equally obsessed with getting (I can’t say “earning”) a Harvard degree for himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if he chose his program based on where he could get in, not what was most useful in his career.</p>
<p>And we need to remember that one of the Virginia Tech shooter’s flaws as far as his family was concerned, was that he wasn’t an Ivy Leaguer, unlike his sibling. Sadly, his parents obsessed over the wrong flaw, obviously.</p>
<p>Both my parents went to Ivies (Upenn then Harvard and Princeton then MIT), and neither one of them has any qualms about where I go. If I can get in, I can go.</p>