<p>I was reading a NYT article regarding college admissions, where they spoke to several admissions officers, and in the comments someone left this message:</p>
<p>"Im a graduate student at Yale who teaches undergrads, and I can attest to the sheer drive, ambition, and intelligence of the undergrad population at large. What continuously bothers myself and my colleagues is the copious amount of privilege and sense of entitlement among themYale has always, and will always, admit an elite student population. I accept this. But it is unfortunate at how easy it is in any given section I have taught to spot the kids (and there are usually more than a few) who went to Deerfield Academy, Horace Mann, Harvard Westlake, etc etc.Insider culture is alive and present, but no matter, while such students may be smart, and articulate, they are never the most creative, imaginative, or talented. I have come to believe that the intelligence I admire is scrappy, and can only come from some sort of lackor need. It it were up to me, Id always choose the shy public school kid that still thinks squash is a vegetable."</p>
<p>At first I thought.. hm.. but.. but.. Yale.. </p>
<p>But now thinking about my visit there (I stayed overnight), I can see the bit of truth in his words.</p>
<p>This actually makes me feel slightly better about being deferred and the highly probable rejection in April. I actually avoided schools like Yale at the beginning of my college search precisely because of what that graduate student described.</p>
<p>while there are a fair share of people from big name schools like the ones mentioned, they are not all like s/he described. the people from these schools are some of the nicest, smartest and most driven people i've met (though i know a few who are not). in fact, three of my suitemates went to all of the schools she mentioned and they are some of my closest friends. at first i was intimidated by the kids who went to the famous boarding schools and prep schools. though i went to a private school, it's not on andover level and it took me some time to being around truly privileged kids. however, they really are just like anyone else. most deserve to be at yale. there are some that only here because five generations of family went to yale but they're easy to avoid if you want. they end up hanging out with other deerfield/exeter/andover/st.pauls'/trinity/ect kids anyway, at least during freshmen year. don't let this bother you though because no matter where you go to school be it another ivy or a small lac like amherst or williams, there will be plenty of kids from these schools. you have to remember that more than half of yale undergrads come from public schools and the majority who went to private schools did not go to these schools. and sometimes it sure feels good to shut down in a prep school kid in class :p</p>
<p>D is in Sgtpepper's class, and is also a public school kid from a part of the country where we don't have private schools, and furthermore, don't know anything about the name schools in new england. She's had no problem making friends, and I have never heard her describe someone based on their high school history. I have a feeling that distinction is left behind pretty quickly. Don't let private HS heirarchy stop you from looking at Yale. For most kids it is a non-issue.</p>
<p>Of the eight people in my entryway/floor freshman year, two were from public schools, three from good provincial private day schools, two from famous boarding schools, and one international. Of that group, the only ones who failed to graduate on time because of academic and personal difficulties were the two boarding school kids.</p>
<p>The kids in my entryway come from public schools like mine, public magnets, private schools for math and science, and a couple of the elite boarding schools describe. They're just as much over-achievers, party animals, slackers, and late-night-crammers as the rest of us. All of them have the ability to laugh at themselves and at how pretentious some of their backgrounds might seem, and that's what gets them along. Don't judge people by their educational covers. </p>
<p>There are always, of course, the Exeter/Deerfield/etc. kids who assume they'll have it easy and slack off, but there are public school kids like that too. Trust me, it'll be knocked out of you by halfway through freshman year.</p>
<p>um......yes. in the article, squash (the sport) was an example of something "elite" that a public school kid would not be aware of. the "public school kid" would consider squash only to be a vegetable.</p>