One of my biggest worries as a parent is whether I'll mess up my son's life by sending him to private school instead of public school. If you go to private school, there will be much more pressure for you to succeed. For if you end up doing the same thing your public school counterpart does, then what's the point?
The Debate Between Private School And Public School
I'm fortunate enough to have a choice. But sometimes, more choices mean more headaches and possible wrong decisions.
I went to an international private middle school when my parents were stationed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as US foreign service officers. The cultural experience was amazing.
But I was also surrounded by a lot of extremely wealthy kids who had drivers and mansions in the hills. There was a innate aura of privilege that I was apart of which made me lazy.
My friends had parents who either owned successful businesses or held high paying jobs. Many of my friends didn't study very hard because they knew that through their parents' connections, they would get choice jobs after graduation. That, or they'd simply get a job at their parents' company and eventually take over the business.
Public School For High School In America
After four years in Malaysia, I came to the US for high school and attended a public school. Public school is where I learned to become more independent and how to deal with many of life's realities.
In the US, some of my high school friends lived in government housing. I had to fight back against bullies and find ways out of hairy situations more times than I can count.
In high school, I got suspended a couple times for fighting back. Some of the kids I hung out with smoked, drank, and shoplifted. I sometimes did the same.
The cast of characters was much more diverse in public school than in private school. But they were a closer reflection of society once I graduated.
I'd like to think that attending public school is what made me into a gritty person who never backs down from conflict. I want to believe coming from an underdog status helped me fight harder to achieve financial independence.
After college, I always used to carry a chip on my shoulder that motivated me to work harder in banking because I had attended a public university instead of an elite target private institution like many of my colleagues.
Without a financial safety net, for me, it was either drown or swim across the ocean to the promised land.
Democratic Socialist AOC Gives Private School Alumni Hope
After seeing some amazing private grade schools in Honolulu and in the SF Bay Area, I want to send my boy to one of these schools if he feels comfortable. All these schools have wonderful teachers, reputations, and campuses.
Further, these schools have a zero tolerance for bullying. Gosh I can't stand bullies and the parents who allow their children to bully.
But I'm conflicted because I fear that by going to private school, he'll come to believe the private school environment is a true reflection of the real world. With its massive skew towards wealthy families, clearly, the private school demographic is not.
Further, there seems to be a growing distaste for rich and powerful people in America. Hence, the importance of practicing Stealth Wealth.
Developing Grit In Our Children Is Important
Is it appropriate for a parent to take away the development of grit and hunger? Providing a completely sheltered environment feels wrong.
The conflict within me became almost unbearable until I witnessed the rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist Congresswoman of New York's 14th District.
Say what you will about AOC's policies, she is an incredible success story as the youngest person to win a congressional seat. I know some 28-29 year olds still living at home with the parents trying to figure life out.
As I learned more about her, I discovered that she attended one of the most expensive private universities in America: Boston University. Check out the latest tuition below.
Boston University Tuition Is Outrageous For Average People
Boston University costs roughly $70,000 a year to attend + other related expenses equaling another $7,000. One must make roughly $100,000 in gross income a year just to pay for one year at Boston University.
For comparison, Harvard University tuition is approximately $45,000 a year, or $7,800 cheaper than Boston University's tuition.
Very few can comfortably afford such tuition. Even if you have loans and grants, deciding to attend Boston University over higher-ranked Harvard, MIT, or Boston College must mean something.
Growing up in a working-class household, I assume AOC received grants and financial aid to help with college tuition.
Most people would rather attend Harvard University for $7,800 less than Boston University. But of course, only students of legacy donors have a 70%+ chance of getting into Harvard. Students with no wealth or connections only have roughly a 5.9% chance of getting in.
You Can Still Be Relatable To The Middle Class If You Are Rich
So I got to thinking, despite going to one of the most expensive universities in the country that's ranked #42 in US News & World Report, AOC has been able to position herself as a woman of the people.
Not only have the working-class people of New York's 14th district embraced AOC, so has the social media world. AOC is the #2 most popular politician on Twitter after Donald Trump.
I’ve read zero pushback online about AOC going to expensive BU, and neither will you because AOC is an inspiration also for the middle class and poor.
Therefore, AOC's example proves that just because you went to an expensive private university, it doesn't mean you are destined to become the stereotypical spoiled rich kid. Nor does it doom you to end up lazy and unmotivated.
Reputation Management Strategies For Private School Alum
If you are going to spend a fortune on sending your kid to private grade school and/or university or if you are a private school alumni, here are some strategies that may allow you or your kid to thrive like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
1) Embrace your privilege.
The best way to defuse other people's bitterness towards you is to come straight out and recognize your privilege. Acknowledge full-on that you were smart and/or wealthy enough to attend private school. As soon as you point out all your advantages, you've taken away their thunder.
Every time someone attributes any success I have to luck rather than to hard work or risk-taking, I agree with them that most of my success is luck. I then take it a step further and describe how fortunate I am to live in America as an Asian person.
After all, the overrepresentation of Asians at America's top universities must mean that Asians must be extremely lucky in academics.
Because I'm Asian, I'm blessed with nonstop creativity. Further, being Asian gives me incredible endurance. We are the champions of meditating for long periods of time. If I wasn't Asian, I'm not sure I'd be able to publish 3X a week for 10 years in a row on Financial Samurai.
Given only 5.6% of the American population gets to be Asian, I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of this select group.
2) Take on student loans to feel the sing.
Whether you need to take on student loans or not, it's best to take on some student loans so you can blend in with the millions of graduates who do have student loans. Of course, don't take on a crazy amount of debt. It has to be enough to notice, but not enough to bring you down.
Student loans are a big problem in America. The $1 trillion+ amount in student loans has now surpassed the amount of revolving credit card debt, the most insidious debt of them all. Even filing for bankruptcy does not absolve you from repaying your student loan.
Student loans have delayed millions of young adults from launching. They're forced to live at home with their parents, take suboptimal jobs, delay buying a house, and delay starting a family.
The median age for starting a family has gotten older, but biology has not adjusted. As a result, many more couples are finding themselves seeing infertility doctors, trying IUI and expensive IVF treatments, and going through countless cycles of hope and heartache.
3) Work minimum wage jobs to appreciate your education and work.
Meanwhile, it's imperative you spend a respectable amount of time working a minimum wage or close to minimum wage service job. By working as a barista, burger flipper, dish washer, driver, bartender, waiter, furniture assembler, gardener etc, you adhere yourself to the common person.
Nobody will be able to say you don't know what it's like to get yelled at while making next to nothing. Instead, you will feel the pride of busting your butt for a living. You will learn humility and never take any progress for granted.
Make no mistake about it. The skyrocketing cost of higher education is hurting the American dream. If you are privileged enough to attend and afford a private school education, it is imperative you do not stick out and blend in.
4) Do something more for society.
One of the saddest things about being rich and smart is that so many rich and smart people end up working at jobs purely for the high pay and prestige. Then they end up depressed and miserable.
Going to work at a tech company to optimize ad tracking seems like such a waste. Creating pitch books at an investment bank to win teenager-targeted tobacco alternative maker Juul's business can't feel very good.
Of course, if you don't come from a wealthy family, by all means, get the highest paying job you can find to get your financials in order. But if you're already rich, then come on now.
Imagine a world where all rich and smart private school kids became teachers, social workers, scientists, doctors or politicians like AOC who want to help the people who've been left behind in this competitive world? That would be pretty amazing.
We don't need more billionaires who hoard more than they could ever spend in a lifetime while residents in their city are starving. Here in San Francisco, we've got 74 billionaires, yet we still have a tremendous homeless problem. What is going on?
Personally, I continue to want to educate the public about money with Financial Samurai. I've been publishing 3-4 times a week every week since 2009. Further, I've got a great book coming out with Penguin Random House entitled, Buy This, Not That: How To Spend Your Way To Wealth And Freedom.
I strongly believe BTNT will be the best personal finance book on the web.
Private School Kids Will Be Fine
If you went to private school or plan to send your kids to private school, I wouldn't worry too much about future backlash as AOC's case demonstrates.
All of our major politicians went to private school, yet millions of working-class people still voted them into office and adore them.
If you can afford to pay private school tuition for your child, go for it. I don't think you'll ever regret spending money on trying to help your child's future.
I want to thank AOC and the American people for shedding light on a very big blind spot of mine.
No longer do I feel guilty about sending my son to private school. The world is full of love for all people, no matter their socioeconomic background.
Related Posts On Private School:
The Evolution Of AOC's Net Worth
Would You Accept $1,000,000 To Go To Public School Over Private School?
Readers, are you impressed with AOC's ability to position herself as a Democratic Socialist after attending Boston University? If you went to an expensive private school or come from a wealthy family, what are some strategies for making yourself be a man or woman of the people? Did you also just realize that nobody really cares if you went to an expensive private school?
“Take on student loans and work a minimum wage job. Whether you need to take on student loans or not, it’s best to take on some student loans so you can blend in with the millions of graduates who do have student loans.”
I like the reasoning behind taking a minimum wage job but telling folks, especially young folks, to intentionally take on debt-especially for the purposes of being worried about what people think of you is irresponsible and stupid. It wreaks of insecurity and feeds an insecure mindset. It’s advice I can only imagine a banker would give. Here’s an alternative; pick a school you can afford (maybe 1st 2 years at a community college along with staying at home rather that wasting thousands of dollars on on-campus housing) based on what you make working 20-30 hours a week (studies show these kids get higher grades) and applying for every scholarship you can find. Do this and you’ll avoid significant debt.
Maybe. Nothing is ever really completely stupid. There’s always a positive to a negative situation.
It is often the mistakes and the hardships and the different perspectives that make people stronger over time.
I am a product of both. Private school K through 9 in California then public school in Honolulu. At the time it was the #1 ranked public school in Honolulu. College I did both – public institution for undergrad (full scholarship) and private for graduate school (full sponsor from employer).
I am not the smartest kid in class, never was. But I do well enough. My children attend private school because they are only children once and it is important to us for the children to have a Biblical foundation early in their learning path. We believe that our responsibility is to raise ethical and responsible adults. They will have a choice to attend public school in 7th grade through 12th. By then there is no controlling what our kids do, we just have to hope that what we’ve instilled in them by 13 years old will be enough to guide their decisions through jr. high and high school.
Both public and private schools produce talented and bright students. What really matters are the teachers who cross their paths and the people who surround those children as they are growing up.
dude, nice website. i’ll have to check in here a little more often. i’ll give you a little background and my public/private experience. i was a kid from the sticks on the NY/VT border. dad was a prison guard and mom stayed home. that was typical at that time. i don’t think we ever travelled more than 50 miles from home when i grew up and the only real option was the public high school with about 60 grads per year. to make a long story short i was a decent track/x-country athlete (not elite by an means) and pretty bright and got accepted to BU, cornell, and everywhere i applied. i ended up at old dominion for a couple of years on a full ride. it was a good school but norfolk in the 80’s sucked and probably still does. we crashed a couple of parties at w+m and that place looked sweet! there were definitely some dummies at o.d.u. and gigantic classes except for the honors classes. i transferred to one of those elite northeast private schools but was culturally like a fish out of water. it’s not that i wasn’t well accepted but i didn’t relate to the boarding school types, not even the runners. with all that the quality of teaching was much better for my chemistry degree. they really cared that everyone understood the material. i left as a full time student due to wanderlust and finished there as an adult with my employer picking up that expensive tab. if i had to pick a school today i would go to williams.
Curious about your thoughts on ACO’s New Green Deal
Pretty exciting actually. Like the promises of Fyre Festival! :)
I left work in 2012 because I was unwilling to work no more. Does the #GreenNewDeal mean I can go back to work without having to work and still get paid? Who’s got it better than us? Go #USA!
“I know some 28-29 year olds still living at home with the parents trying to figure life out.”
What happens if this is me? Does that make one a *BAD* or *WORSE* human being as a result? And I did not come from a privilege background, rather something closer to the opposite, and actually ended up hitting walls and limits toward educational opportunities instead of being sent to elite private schools. What happens to the people who did *NOT* hit it well when “younger”? Are they *worse* people for that? If you don’t get to be the top politician then are you a much, much worse human being? Does the *magnitude* make you good or bad, or does what’s in the heart, the motivation, the purity (or lack thereof) of the actions? What would someone in this position need to do to be a *genuinely great* human being? And I am not just, in fact not at all, talking about money. Plenty of people are rich but far from “great”. That’s not what I mean and in fact my query thus kind of divests from what this site is about in this regard. What I mean by it is how to be a truly maximal force for actual good in the world, to be a truly *good person*, *if* that’s what that means or if it does indeed factor in at least, what do you need, to go from where I’m at (also 2 years away from graduating from a no name University on top of that, too, and with mental health issues still being worked on, and also never having properly learned the habit of good discipline and work ethic until just perhaps beginning to rather recently)?
Nice job on realizing and acknowledging however that this celeb was, indeed, privileged. But the problem here is not appearing to explicate, then, what this should suggest to people who *failed* – for whatever reasons you want to adduce or not as to why – to meet this “standard”. What does it suggest to them? As you say she’s supposed to speak to the “middle class and poor” as well but doesn’t seem to to me, because I haven’t a clue as to how to go that far and nobody else seems to either. It seems almost like magic is required. And if you’re not going to go or it is impossible to go, that far, then there’s no point in bothering with such a person as your “inspiration” when someone significantly less prominent might make a much better one by setting a bar that actually can be reached, and moreover people should not be faulted or considered worse people either because they did *not* have such privileges and thus did *not* do things with similar *magnitude*.
Thanks.
Sam,
First time here and enjoyed it. I’m a mix of public and private and think I’m smarter than the average bear, however, your bio is a little confusing to me:
Sam started Financial Samurai in 2009 as a way to make sense of the financial crisis. He proceeded to spend the next 13 years after attending…
my math says it should be 2022 now based on your bio versus 2019. I’ll subscribe for more, thanks for an interesting site.
Welcome to FS. Check out the FS Forum as well.
Hmm, not sure why your description of my bio is different from my bio below each post. Where did you get it?
That’s how it appears when viewing the site on my iPhone. I just checked again and confirmed it’s the same. I do see the difference now while using my work laptop.
I can send a screen shot of the whole thing if that helps.
Growing up, I attended public schools all over the country. My family was military, so some of those were DoD schools overseas. A DoD overseas teaching assignment was highly sought after in the 1980s, so they tended to attract the best teachers in the country. Coming back stateside, the public school situation was different; I found myself ahead of my peers in most subjects and taking more advanced classes.
I chose to follow my father’s example and join the military as an officer out of college; I attended one of those “cheap” state universities, but one with a very high reputation in the military community. I remember attending a small gathering for cadets with alumni who had gone on to become leaders in academia and business. One individual had been a fighter pilot, and he described something that has stuck with me to this day; his experience with a particular Harvard grad, whom he fired for not producing results.
Now my daughter attends public school, and will likely do so until she graduates. She has special needs, and it happens that the private school reputation in that particular educational niche is… not stellar. Which is fine; it just means I need to be her unfair advantage and I can’t hide my parental failings behind a giant pile of cash and iPhones. I don’t worry about people who went to fancy schools, as long as they can pull their weight we’ll get along just fine.
What was that something with the Harvard grad?
Good question! Alas, he did not related the specifics. I don’t even remember the industry, this happened 20 years ago. Two things I do remember: his anecdote about the Harvard grad and his description of what it was like to fly the F4 Phantom (it was a “hoot”). Education and connections can open doors. It takes initiative to go through them and hard work to stay on the right side of them.
Send a spoiled rich kid to college, public or private, and s/he will likely come out…still a spoiled rich kid. The world will react to him or her accordingly.
I grew up lower middle class in an urban neighborhood, before gentrification. My schools had gang problems and homeless attendees. I learned to engage with a broad spectrum of humanity and to understand/respect a broad spectrum of human experience. The fancy degrees I learned years later did not strip me of this quality.
I don’t understand this post at all. Possibly a privilege of my upbringing!
“Further, these schools have a zero tolerance for bullying. Gosh I can’t stand bullies and the parents who allow their children to bully”
hahahahahaha. Sorry, if you really believe that “zero tolerance” means there will be no bullying, or that bullies will be dealt with harshly in all cases is fantasy.
Reality is that overt bullying (like physical intimidation, clear social media abuse) will not be tolerated. But frankly, that is become rare due to interventions that happen proactively in most public and private schools. However, more subtle bullying is rampant in both cases. It can take forms you might not notice. Some kids don’t get social invitations, are subtly excluded from playdates, birthday parties, at lunch, on the playground. That behavior can be cruel, and can’t be dictated by the schools.
Further, you can be guaranteed that the child of a big money donor will be given a much longer leash when they instigate conspicuous or inconspicuous bullying. If there is one constant, it is that people with means are given more latitude for poor behavior.
I agree there are academic (and other) benefits of private schools, but having a realistic expectation is important, and from what and how you wrote this, I am not sure you do have realistic expectations
(as background, we have 2 children, 20 and 17 years old, they both went to private pre-school, and public grade and middle schools. My oldest went to a Magnet public high school that was quite restrictive (2-3 students from each of 21 school districts in the county covering ~8000 students his age), and my daughter is at our town’s high quality high school. Despite the quality of our town’s high school, approximately 15% of families -including many of our friends- send their kids to private or parochial high schools instead of our high school, despite tuition of >$50K/year)
Zero tolerance does it mean no bullying. It means zero tolerance. So if the kid is found bullying, he or she is sent to counselors to figure out what’s going on. If the kid and the parents don’t comply, they are booted from the school.
Public/private, ivy league /state U. That all matters very little compared to engaged, loving parents whose goal is raising moral and prepared adults. Great parents aren’t raising children, they are growing them into responsible adults. Your son is a fortunate one because he has focused parents, as did my kids. Where they go to school, not that important as your success and character demonstrates quite well.
Whenever I see the picture of AOC either here or on TV, it keeps reminding me the communists are coming.
Agreed. It is amazing how people never learn. I heard old Bernie Sanders was accosted recently flying first class – life is nice as a socialist. In the USSR, nobody had anything, at least the plebs, while the politically connected had access to international capital and perqs and lived large in comparison while the black market / barter town overtook the formal economy as the poor regular folks struggled to feed themselves…old Orwell was right, totalitarianism comes from the left not the right and not all animals are equal as some are more equal than others under the Communist yoke….sound familiar, Venezuela? Oh wait, it will be different next time. :)
I found the apologetics in this article annoyingly opportunistic. Please do yourself a favor and stop denying that you were ever going to do anything but send your child to private school. Worrywarts will always minimize risk taking (i.e. rolling the dice with the public school system) and you sir are a worrywart.
You may have missed some precious articles.
Don’t be annoyed. Take action! When making big decisions, it’s better to be thorough then not thorough.
To just wing it equals laziness.
https://www.financialsamurai.com/accept-1000000-to-attend-public-school-over-private-school/
They are just hugely different – first time somewhat on your own for kids, having to navigate food and shared spaces with other people. It can be very stressful for everyone. In this regard, private vs public colleges tend to be the same. Plus, private colleges aren’t known for being better at educating as is thought to be the case with private lower schools – often times, private unis are just religious or single gender, or their private status can be tied back to one of those things.
I don’t think any path to higher ed is better or worse, I think the public v private debate is just location dependent.
In VA, there are places where the public schools are definitely better than the private ones. There is also a private school that costs more than my law school in terms of tuition, and the kids that go there do not fare well later in life for lack of ever having to actually do something themselves. Yet all the wealthy Richmonders continue to send their kids to what is truly a magnificent facility thinking it better prepares them – only to have their kids go to the exact same schools as the kids from the public high school they shunned. And this is another factor, VA’s higher ed schools are so good that there is no reason to go private except for the 2 factors listed above for in state schooling.
Public v private really just boils down to how well the state is currently funding education where you are and which type of school helps your kid best, but I do think there is something to be said about the way public schools (usually the bigger ones like hs) expose kids to different income levels, and I think that is important.
For me, I did public grade school and uni, then private law school. There was a distinct bubble of private kids at both college & law school who had no connection to the real word. In both, there were also private kids who were very grounded and thoughtful about their opportunities. Both my public undergrad and private law school experiences were identical to what I would have had at a private uni or public law school.
Wealthy Richmonders, tell me more! Is that where you’re from? I think one of the Choose FI podcast hosts when to U of Richmond. Is that considered a rich person school?
Give it and I wanted to save myself and my parents money, I always just looked at the University of Virginia, James Madison, Mary Washington, and The College of William and Mary.
I never considered private school because the cost was literally eight times greater at the time. The college of William and Mary cost $2800 a year in tuition.
I find it interesting that Virginia has SUCH good schools given that’s where the majority of our government workers/Congressmen live. Once again, they choose to reap the rewards of the taxpayers money. Just not fair…
Not sure if you meant it this way with all the tongue-and-cheek, but you can’t really compare private K-12 outcomes to private university. If you didn’t go private for some part of K-12, then you aren’t really a “private school kid” with all that term implies; there is just too much of a difference in terms of insulation from the real world.
P.S. Go tribe!
There are plenty of upscale towns in which the schools are exactly like private schools — it’s just that the property owners in the town are paying the tuition, and keeping their property values up at the same time.
Private is a state of mind.
Go Tribe!
What are some reasons why one cannot compare private grade school and private college? What is the difference between comparing private grade school to public grade school and private college to public college?
Do you think it’s better to go to private grade school and then public college or vice versa?
Just out of curiosity what does being Asian have to do with being creative or endurance? Couldn’t we say the same for Africans? Or was that more a tongue in cheek joke that didn’t translate over text medium well?
Either way my hope is to move and buy a home in the best school district in SD and then send my kid to public school until college. Best way to save money and still get a good quality education!
Not sure, because I can only speak for myself as an Asian person. There must be something to being Asian given the highest income levels in America are by Asians and the Harvard lawsuit detailed much higher SAT test scores necessary for Asians to get in, even though there are already 4-5X more Asians at Harvard compared to the national average of Asians in America (20-25% vs 5.6%).
What would you attribute to these facts to if not for genetics? Everybody can work hard, so that’s not a competitive advantage. So perhaps the endurance claim I’ve made is a fallacy.
What race are you? And what do you think are some of the competitive advantages of your race?
And yes, I’m being a little facetious because I believe all people are equal but with unequal opportunity.
See: https://www.financialsamurai.com/income-by-race-why-is-asian-income-so-high/
You sound like an Asian supremacist. :) Luckily you can get away with it. If and when you have a second child, you will cast aside your indoctrination that genetics don’t matter and everyone has the same innate abilities across the board. While environment plays a role, genetics play a larger role in cognitive and behavioral traits…the science is speaking and can only be silenced by the modern day Church of the Left for a finite period of time. While people should be valued equally, and we should strive to give everyone the same starting point, pretending everyone has the same innate capabilities is patently absurd. The probability of all human abilities being distributed evenly across populations that have been evolving for tens of thousands of years in different environments is about as unlikely mathematically as the bible being literally true. Just because there are small average differences resulting in large disparities at the tails – e.g. Caltech, the only truly egalitarian school left in the USA, being 40% North Asian and the NBA being 80% African/African-American – does not mean we have to hate each other for these differences. Just embrace the diversity!!! :) Check out Steve Hsu blog if you dare.
Sam,
I’m Asian, but really don’t attribute mentioned stats or characteristics with my race, but rather my upbringing.
Anyways good to know you were being a bit facetious.
Ooops – It wasn’t private all the way. They went private from preschool all the way to
High School, they both graduated from State Universities and one is an Industrial Engineer and now works for a Pharmaceutical Company and the other is now a Software engineer.
On Being soft – they don’t have that attitude like you and I have, ” an eye for an eye”
Did you feel all that down that they went to a public university after spending so many years in private school?
I’ll always remember the funny quote I read in Bloomberg about the angst parents have spending a fortune in Manhattan grade school. The quote was something like this “ after years of paying $50,000 a year in grade school tuition, Little Johnny ends up at Penn State instead of U Penn.”
No, not at all since I gave both boys choice of going private or public and they chose public.
Private High School was a total waste of money. My basic premise was to give them a good foundation, but when it came High School time, we didn’t have any choice since
we were in a lousy school district.
Good to hear and good to know. So you’re saying that by the time your kids were 14 years old, they could differentiate between right and wrong and already had a good foundation. Therefore, going to a private high school was not as important because their work ethic and intelligence was already established?
I went to private grade school. I also went to public middle and high school. I graduated from a boarding high school. I went to a private university. That’s a pretty unique mixture.
My takeaway was that kids have to become exposed to a public school environment at some point. And college doesn’t count. If they do not have this exposure then they will live their lives in a bubble.
Further, having discussed this with friends, having contemplated where to send my kids, and also having a wife who worked in education and admissions at a high end private school, I am not convinced private school is worth the price. There are public schools I would not want my children to attend but they will be (and some already are) in a public school that I really like.
Sam. Well done on creating buzz. If you chose another person as an example on this subject there would have been much fewer comments. I would guess 99% of your readers get sick to their stomach just seeing her picture. I can only expect a future article on Pelosi and another random subject that’s close to your ideals. You just need to weave the story so that it somehow correlates….. Maybe a risk taking example by using a controversial character to create buzz to advance the comments or views on a webpage while risk loosing some readers? Just an idea…… .
Sam may have more insight into his readership’s politics via analytics but I would guess it’s an even split politically, just like everything in the US kind of is. Be careful to not assume anybody who pays attention to their financial well-being shares the same politics as you.
And god I hope you’re wrong about there being more political posts here in the future just for the sake of clicks. One of the main things I like about this site is that the articles are typically factual and address personal improvements you can make to your finances in the context of those facts. It’s not about voting in or out this politician. Those things are beyond any individual’s control (unless you’re a billionaire and can buy and sell politicians). The best thing you can do is analyze the current climate and adjust your positions accordingly, regardless of who is in power, what the tax rates are, etc.
Just my 2 cents. It ain’t my site.
Ian, do you think this is a political post? Because I don’t talk politics in this post. It’s all about private school versus public school and the decision process.
If you think this is a political post, can you point out some of the sentences or reasoning as to why? Thanks
No I don’t. I think it’s a smart post and likely to generate traffic because AOC is such an internet phenomenon now. I was merely responding to the previous commenter who suggested more controversial/political posts (any mention of Pelosi IS inherently political) would be a good thing.
As I said, I love that you examine and pick apart topics based on the facts. The facts are AOC hustled and played her cards well. We can all learn something from that.
Cool. It’s understandable that the comments can dissolve into political opinions give I talk about AOC.
I really enjoy looking at current events and details to try and we’ve together and interesting story with some real world conclusions and insights.
The comments here are pretty respectful and insightful for the most part. But once you go to Facebook or somewhere, the comments get quite heated b/c people just read the headlines and don’t give the content much thought.
You may not care about politics, but politics cares about you. There are large political ramifications for those of us in the FIRE, or DIRE, communities. :) The power to tax, after all, is the power to destroy…in particular an individual’s financial future.
Interesting observations – except – what’s the point of going to any kind of school since the World will end in 12 years.
The good thing is that it will be a Nirvannah for those years with free everything AND no school!
Great article Sam and I imagine you’ll show your kid this article when he graduates from college. What a lucky one to have a father as thoughtful as you when it comes to selecting the education! I went to public schools for grade school, private liberal arts school for undergrad and high-ranking public for grad school. All I could say is I’m grateful for everything I learned and experienced during both my public and private schooling experience. One thing you should absolutely consider is where your son will be happy. Some kids love competition while some thrive in more collaborative environments typical of small schools/classes. I personally could have gone to a big public university for undergrad but I know I would suffer in a 200-people classroom, whereas the small class environment I got at my undergrad school helped me become a more confident and articulate speaker. I’m not sure I like your using the phrase “reputation management”. However, I agree with you that as long as we consider ourselves privileged, we should all occasionally do things that keep us close to reality. Maybe the world would be a better place if our leaders all decided to do that for parts of the year but who am I to dictate what they do :) ?
Good stuff.
I wanted to go to a smaller school for undergrad to have smaller classroom settings. I knew that if I went to a large U, I’d just slack off more.
Better to go to a large U for grad school to take advantage of the large alumni base, yet still have the small intimate setting e.g. UC Berkeley b-school.
I love reputation management, especially for folks who still have to work for a living. You get much farther with a better rep!
Hey dude.. we both went to TAS in the 80s in Taipei.
At least for me, when I moved back to the States, I attended public school in a rural town in Texas, and then quality of education went way down.. (moved to different states after that).
All of my “older” kids went to public school because I didn’t have the financial means back then.. they are all doing alright now – they had to be resilient though through the public school system.. they have many stories to tell…
My “younger” kids… now that I have the financial means, why not? What will it hurt if I send one or more of them to private as long as I can…? Maybe all those stories the “older” kids told me made me make this decision.
Just my point of view…
How many kids do you got?
As someone who went to TAS in the 80s, did you attend the Shilin campus? I really miss that one. The new campus is foreign to me and brings no memories.
5 kids.
I went to the one in Tienmou, near TYPA (park & rec). I haven’t been back since. I was only in like the 4th and 5th grade when I was there.
Wow! What a blessing. Yeah, Tian Mu. Fond memories. Maybe we were classmates? I left in 4th grade.
Sounds like our childhood were very similar. I also went to a private school in Asia and got shipped out here to good ole U.S.A. at 12 and attended public schools. Man, was it not only
a huge culture shock but I soon learned very fast what a “dog eat dog world” this was. Stood up to the bullies and racist alot too.
Fast forward 20 years, sent my 2 boys to private schools since I did not want them to see a lot of the things I saw growing up and am glad they turned out fine and now have successful careers, BUT, I can still see private schools made them soft.
Sounds like we had the exact same childhood. Dog eat dog world for sure. I developed this, “If you f*ck with me, I will f*ck you up!” attitude.
In what ways specifically, did private school make your boys soft? Can you share where they went to college and what they do for a living?
I think so long as we aren’t buying them a car, a house, and paying for everything, our kids should turn out ok. We have to teach them the value of money.
A lot of people don’t seem to know that private universities are very active price discriminators. Of course, they will say they are giving a scholarship rather than a discount but it amounts to the same thing. The average tuition paid by students at the top private universities is only a fraction of the “sticker price”. It’s the marginal student who just squeaks in from a wealthy family who pays the full price. If you are academically strong and come from a poor family then it will likely be cheaper to go to Harvard than to a state university. OTOH Boston U has a smaller endowment and more students than Harvard. The typical student at BU probably pays more tuition than at Harvard. Boston University was the first private school I went to. I did my PhD there. I went to public grade schools, undergrad, and masters. I later taught at BU for a couple of years. I also was a professor at another US private university. There they gave free tuition to anyone from the local town who could qualify to enter. I think the average student there paid about a 1/3 of the “sticker price” at the time. Now I work at a public university in Australia.
Sam, you are far too subtle sometimes. Many of your readers don’t realize the heavy doses of humour, irony and satire you inject in many of these types of “culture” posts and read them literally.
You must smile at some of the ridiculous comments.
Well done, as always.
When I saw the title of this post, I knew it was going to controversial. The comments certainly haven’t disappointed. Kudos for allowing conflicting opinions.
It seems the gist of your post is that AOC’s background gives “rich private school graduates” hope, not (necessarily) her policies and politics.
I don’t entirely agree with her politics – I’m pretty much the opposite of a socialist. I don’t think her proposed 70% tax rate will have it’s intended effect (raise revenue) but rather make those people who earn more than the $10 million jump through hoops to lower their taxable income below the $10 million threshold, regardless of the fact it’s “only” a marginal tax rate.
There have been a few things she’s said or tweeted that I’ve agreed with, but I just went through her Twitter feed and couldn’t find any.
The post isnt about her political views at all, more so that the working class and the poor have embraced her despite she going to one of the most expensive private schools in the world.
Given this embrace, it provides private school alumni and parents of private school kids relief from angry mobs so long as they stay humble and do good with their lives.
I want our society to come together and understand each other more. With more understanding comes more love. And more love is always great.
I’m sure some people will get upset reading the title or missing some of the nuances. But for those who can consume the article with an open mind and with deep thought, I think it helps highlight many many things.