Relative Eliteness: Understanding through Personal Experiences

In studying elite schools and how they shape an individual, it is interesting and important to look back on my own educational experiences as they have made me who I am today. I went to Catholic school from K-12. I did not attend the same school for 13 years however, but went to elementary school from K-6th grade, junior high for 7th and 8th grade, and high school for 9th-12th grade. Even as a kid, I understood there was a degree of eliteness in going to these schools that my friends on my recreational basketball and softball teams did not have at the public schools in Nashua. I had a simple understanding of this at a young age though, being that the only difference was I wore a uniform and took religion classes.

Once I reached high school, I realized that there was an air of superiority that came with private schooling. When people asked where I went to school, I was hesitant to tell them because I didn’t want them to think I was wealthy and stuck-up. The truth is, my parents sacrificed a lot for me to go to a private high school to get a better education than the one I would have received at the public school in my city. We lived paycheck to paycheck but I experienced a weird dichotomy in that I wanted the rich kids at my high school to think I was like them, but didn’t want to be perceived as snotty to everyone else.

At Colby I have had a similar experience in trying to fit in with the upper-class crowd while simultaneously trying not to seem pretentious to the world outside of Colby. Before I got to college I was under the impression that I went to a preppy, affluent high school. But that was before I learned of the elite schools scattered throughout New England that so many of my classmates have graduated from. They went to exclusive boarding schools that boasted beautiful athletic facilities and high-level academia unparalleled to any other high schools in the country. Just a reminder, these are high schools…

They boast extremely high graduation rates and impressive college acceptances. They are known to be the best of the best, and for a price. The understanding I formerly had of private schools was based solely on my own Catholic school experience. I didn’t even know these schools existed because they were so far out of my league, financially. Colby’s student body is filled with graduates from these schools though and the preppy, affluent person I was so afraid to be has been out shadowed by them. I now find myself having to defend what I grew up thinking of as an elite education with the fear that people may view me as inferior within the Colby world.

Upon self-reflection I have found that the lens with which you look at schooling based on your own educational experiences shapes your opinions. For me, the prestige I once believed to possess I no longer feel belongs to me… and I don’t know whether to be relieved or worried. I no longer feel the need to establish my middle-class status but do feel the need to assert myself as well-educated amongst my classmates who went to “better” high schools.

Regardless of relative eliteness regarding my secondary education, the fact that I attend Colby College automatically places me among the elites when I graduate. It is important for me to use this status as a way to help those in need and focus less on how others may perceive my assumed wealth, and more on what I can do to be perceived as a good person. One of my favorite quotes is “Go into the world and do good. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.”