<p>Any top private school will have lots of rich kids. It costs 50k a year, at most half of the kids will have financial aid/scholarships, so someone has to be able to afford throwing 50k a year, and some of those people are filthy rich. If the school is in a city the income gap becomes very apparent as some kids drop hundreds of dollars a night going clubbing and to restaurants. </p>
<p>A lot of it depends on how you view your peers. If you get hung up over the rich ones who throw money around like it grows on trees, you might not be able to function at a school like UChicago where the majority of the students are far from preppy and fratty, but some are still very wealthy and preppy. If rich kids don’t bother you, then you would be able to find your niche and be very happy even at a private, preppy LAC like Williams.</p>
<p>Also, don’t let greek life influence how you view a school. Harvard has frats, but they play a small, if any, role on campus life. Williams (or was it Amherst?) doesn’t have frats but is still really preppy. Princeton doesn’t have frats either, but the elitism is supposedly able to shine through the eating clubs. MIT has a huge greek influence, but I don’t know many people who would complain that MIT is too preppy.</p>
<p>All right, thanks guys I live in Texas, so UT is my backup school. I was interested in Wash U before I realized that if I got in I’d probably be at the lower end of the spectrum of students there (plus, my parents can’t afford it at all).</p>
<p>I don’t mind lots of fraternities and such as long as it’s not full of the stereotypical, off-dad’s-money, wasted-half-the-time person. I know everybody’s not like that, but I’d rather stay clear of it.</p>
<p>No offense to anyone, but have the people who responded “Texas” ever been to one of these schools? I lived in Texas for 6 years and know literally hundreds of people who go to schools like UT, A&M, TCU, etc. and let me tell you, it is PREPS GALORE. Many of these schools have a huge greek presence on campus. This is coming from personal experience since I’ve been to frat parties at UT and one at A&M. They are large schools so there will of course be a big group of people who have nothing to do with greek life but I’d hardly call any of these schools the “least preppy”.</p>
<p>Least preppy from what I’ve heard = Vassar, Reed, U Portland, Oberlin.</p>
<p>^ I disagree with NYU - only 2% of the population is Greek but it’s a “rich kids school”. I mean, total costs come out to $53k a year and the FA sucks, plus NYC is so expensive - consequently, if you’re trying to avoid rich people throwing money around, it’s a tough place to be. </p>
<p>My parents are relatively well-off and I feel out of place here sometimes by the way people throw money around so easily, or do stupid stunts that get them suspended without worry about costs or anything. And restaurants, nightlife, shows - it’s all so expensive. </p>
<p>Sounds like the OP is looking for a State U with minimal Greek life. Private schools are naturally full of rich kids.</p>
<p>^I understand, but I was disagreeing with him saying NYU because it’s private, costs $53k, and is notorious for crappy FA, a lot worse than most private schools.</p>
<p>Even if privates have the most aid, I’m guessing the average household income at State U will be lower than the average household income at Private U in most cases. Harvard has amazing FA, yet I’ve heard like 30% of Undergrads there went to private prep schools, not public HS’s.</p>
<p>*UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, basically all the UCs (maybe except for Santa Barbara, lol) definitely have diversity. *</p>
<p>Wow, what a dumb post. UCSB’s entering 2009 class is 4% African American, 20.7% Asian, 24.9% Hispanic, and 44.7% White. UCSB also has the 3rd highest percentage of “underrepresented minorities” after UCM and UCR. What other UC has a large mix of all ethnicities?</p>
<p>Greek systems have nothing directly to do with whether a school is ‘preppy.’ Preppy refers to things related to a preparatory school education. </p>
<p>I disagree with LogicWarrior…UT is really, really preppy. Preppy doesn’t have to be “prepatory school.” It’s more like a stereotype: wears abercrombie, all straight blonde hair with big sunglasses, sometimes extremely vacuous, affluent, parties a lot.</p>
<p>My school, which is a public school, is rife with them.</p>
<p>^I wouldn’t call that “preppy”. I’d call it “fratty”. Preps don’t wear Abercrombie. Do people in college wear Abercrombie?</p>
<p>There are lots of schools which are super fratty. If you want to go to a school that’s far from fratty, you start looking at super nerd schools.</p>
I live in Texas, so UT is my backup school. I was interested in Wash U before I realized that if I got in I’d probably be at the lower end of the spectrum of students there (plus, my parents can’t afford it at all).</p>