Big difference between public schools and private schools in my experience. There’s a lot of BS everywhere, but at University of Kentucky, I would see people who were really Appalachian, at University of Maryland, I would see horse farmers, at LSU, there are a lot of Cajuns, etc. etc. The private schools don’t have any obligation to repr…
Big difference between public schools and private schools in my experience. There’s a lot of BS everywhere, but at University of Kentucky, I would see people who were really Appalachian, at University of Maryland, I would see horse farmers, at LSU, there are a lot of Cajuns, etc. etc. The private schools don’t have any obligation to represent any particular community, which I think makes it easier for them to become insulated from society and go off the rails.
I've had the same experience at public vs. private institutions. You do see plenty of rich kids at flagship public institutions, in part because they're hard to get into and in part because they can cost as much as private schools for out-of-state students. But you also see a much, much wider range of socioeconomic backgrounds.
To be fair to the privates, there is of course a lot of variation. I had a classmate at Georgetown who was black and from the eastern part of the city (which is generally a very low-SES, high-crime area, not what most people picture when they picture DC). He has gone on to considerable success in medicine. In DC it might be a little different because we’re not a state and we don’t really have state institutions.
It’s not all or nothing, but I do think there’s a reason the ideological extremes have an easier time taking hold in the ivies than in public schools.
Big difference between public schools and private schools in my experience. There’s a lot of BS everywhere, but at University of Kentucky, I would see people who were really Appalachian, at University of Maryland, I would see horse farmers, at LSU, there are a lot of Cajuns, etc. etc. The private schools don’t have any obligation to represent any particular community, which I think makes it easier for them to become insulated from society and go off the rails.
I've had the same experience at public vs. private institutions. You do see plenty of rich kids at flagship public institutions, in part because they're hard to get into and in part because they can cost as much as private schools for out-of-state students. But you also see a much, much wider range of socioeconomic backgrounds.
To be fair to the privates, there is of course a lot of variation. I had a classmate at Georgetown who was black and from the eastern part of the city (which is generally a very low-SES, high-crime area, not what most people picture when they picture DC). He has gone on to considerable success in medicine. In DC it might be a little different because we’re not a state and we don’t really have state institutions.
It’s not all or nothing, but I do think there’s a reason the ideological extremes have an easier time taking hold in the ivies than in public schools.