I went to a prep school. Yeah, a prep school. As in living away from home, as in elitism, as in class on Saturdays. Prep schools are intense and unique experiences, and my time there has very much played a factor into how my college life has progressed. The effects of this run deeper than can be imagined.
First of all, I cannot mention anything about high school in conversation without having somebody make a snarky remark. This is probably the most tangible of the effects of prep school on my college life. If I'm walking around campus with some buddies and see a friend from high school and say hi to that friend, somebody might ask how I know that person.
"Oh, I went to high school with him."
"Oh, you mean you went to the distinguished Phillips Exeter Academy with him?"
I guess that's one way of looking at it. Another is that I went to high school with him. Dick.
Another very tangible effect of my prep school education is that I came to college with basic knowledge of how to operate as an independent person. No, I'm not talking about balancing a checkbook or doing taxes or anything like that. I mean normal people stuff.
I'm still shocked at some of the things that people didn't (and don't) know how to do. Laundry: OK, that makes sense. Your mom (or dad I'm all about breaking down the stereotypes stigmatizing stay-at-home dads) did your laundry for you. But then there are things like ike how to make your room look like a real habitation and not a mental hospital. And no, I'm not some interior design snob. But some kids freshman year will have completely bare walls, save for one John Belushi poster. That ain't right. Your room looks like somebody decorated it who has 20/400 vision and refuses to wear glasses or contacts.
Also, classes in high school were harder than classes in college. I worked a lot more in high school than in college. I'm not saying that prep school PREPared me (see what I did there?) better for college than any other high school. I'm just saying that prep school helped me realize sooner than many others that college does not require the stress that some freshmen think it does. You'll be OK. Trust me.
People say that college is a time to reinvent yourself. You're in a brand new place. You don't really know anyone. Nobody knows you! You can be the theater geek you've always wanted to be. Or you can be a frat star. There are no restrictions on your new choice of image and personality.
How many people from your high school go here? Four? You've gotta be kitten me! That's so many! I bet you run into them all the time.
For prep school (and Stuyvesant) people, that number is astronomical. There was somebody from my high school on my freshman trip. There was somebody from my high school in my pledge class. I feel like if I don't watch where I'm going, I'm going to trip on somebody who went to my high school. The chance to reinvent yourself if you went to a prep school is basically zero. I wish somebody had told me that at the start of high school, "be cool now because you can't change that once you get to college." I'm stuck with the same not-coolness that I had at the start of high school. Oh well.
Don't get me wrong. I'm making prep school out to be a really weird thing. Which it is. But in a good way. There's no need for a LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. Going to prep school before college was cool. I'm sure not going to prep school would've been cool, too. Maybe you can talk about high school without getting made fun of.
