Finally Today

colleges full of rich kids?

is there someplace online or some information anywhere that lets me know if a college is full of rich people? i really wouldn't want to go to a school full of fancy upperclassmen, but i generally hear that private schools are more generous when they give out financial aid when compared to public schools like UCs. is this true? so i guess that is two questions

Public Comments

1. To generalize, which I hate to do, you're more apt to find wealthier people in a private school. If you want to avoid this just go to a public university.
2. A lot of people in college are on financial aid and don't have rich families. You should not be concerned about the financial status of other students while choosing your college. You should focus on whether or not the college will meet your goals and needs. If you focus on anything other than what you need from a college than you will not find an adequate education. It can be difficult to choose a college to go to, but you won't be in college forever. So focus on the long term benefits that you will be getting and whether or not that specific college can get you there. If a private school will help you than go to a private school.
3. Every school is full of rich people. I go to a private school and it's one of the most expensive schools in the country. We give an incredibly amount of financial aid and we are needs-blind. But one of our students is a Princess (no joke) and a bunch of others are fantastically wealthy. This is how it is everywhere. There are some schools, however, where students are known to *flaunt* their wealth. These schools include Duke, UVA, Vanderbilt (note the plethora of Southern schools...dunno why), Amherst (though it's not as bad as it used to be), USC, Harvard, and Dartmouth. It is true that many private schools give out a great deal of money for financial aid. This might interest you--a list of colleges with the greatest amount of money given to Pell Grants: http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i34/5434pell_table.htm
4. Private schools do tend to give more money than public schools. If you go to an out of state public school, your financial aid will probably be few mediocre. To find out if their are a lot of rich students at your school, you should look at the area that the school is located and how many students that go there are in-state or from the area. Look at how many students are on financial aid and HOW MUCH financial aid they are given. My school gives a significant amount of students financial aid, but sometimes it just a few thousand.
5. The amount of money that most private schools hand out vs. public schools tends to be a lot higher. . . but so is the tuition. Although there are exceptions to this, you'd probably be wise to expect a private school to cost as much as or perhaps even more than an out-of-state public school, regardless of the former's location. All schools will have rich kids and kids who have massive loans to pay off after graduation and/or lots of work-study or off-campus jobs just to get through. Private schools tend to sort of have the reputation of being for rich kids, and that could attract more rich kids than average. . . but that doesn't mean the only students there are rich kids. Public schools also aren't necessarily also for poor kids, either. A lot of people just like how one or the other is or the programs/reputation of programs at a specific school, public or private. If you aren't into going to school with a bunch of elitist rich kids, don't focus so much on cosmetic things like how the place looks. Look at the quality of the programs in subjects that interest you and just the overall reputation of the school. If it's a quality program, it'll attract the best students. . . regardless of income. If it's a pretty school with just average programs, then it could just be full of rich kids.
6. You should check this book out: Fiske Guide to Colleges by Edward B. Fiske. It has descriptions of over 300 colleges and great if you can't go visit the actual campus but want to know what the campus culture and lifestyle is like. For example, one entry that I remember mentioned that the University of Miami is a full of JCrew wearing spoiled kids and so on. If you can't get a hold of the book you could also check out princetonreview.com but I think the Fiske guide is better.