I think it is more of NYC thing.
I don’t.
Though in NY state, we are more than several hundred miles from NYC, certainly not an area known for educational excellence (though the further we have travelled this journey, the more I have come to recognize that our school does do pretty well by most students). Many, many schools like ours exist across the northeast and in metropolitan areas across the nation- I know, as our kids met other kids from these schools at national competitions, and we (both our family personally but also our school) were small-time as far as that kind of thing goes. There are families like this everywhere, though I don’t think the college consultant thing has really penetrated here yet- most people here don’t have the disposable income.
I think it’s an SES/status thing, with some desperation/cynicism/realities about the future thrown in.
