I don't know, kcab-- I think that the entire thing is a mosaic composed of extremes.
My town is like a high-educational-attainment (which drives even HIGHER pressure) version of the microcosm depicted by things like Race to Nowhere.
Really, I recognized a lot of the little vignettes in Amy Chua's memoir-- not personally necessarily, but I've certainly seen them around town. Thing is, though, a lot of these parent's aren't Asian. My DD's friends call them "Honorary Asian Parents." They mean the zealous, pressuring, involved and VERY push-oriented "you MUST perform at this level" (and then we'll work on improving once you've done that) variety.
Also true in this tiny microcosm is a very troubling trend toward prescription drug abuse, suicide/attempts, and mental-health hospitalizations among adolescents. It's a sleepy college town of less than 75K, so you notice those things.
They are about 70%+ upper-middle-class, about 60-70% Caucasian (maybe 20% Asian, 10% Latino), and most just "good" kids in the classic sense. Many, many homes with two terminally-degreed parents. Probably 15-20% of the city has at least one MD/PhD/DVM/JD/EdD/DPharm in the household. Something like 50% of county residents (this includes outlying rural areas) have a college degree.
Major employers are the land grant Uni, high tech, or medical.
There isn't gang activity, VERY little violent crime (I can think of four murders in a decade) or anything like that. It's isolated relatively speaking since it's not a bedroom community for anything larger, and the cost-of-living is high relative to surrounding areas.
These are highly sheltered, highly pampered kiddos, by and large. Highly pressured and groomed, too. The top ~25% of kids here are expected to go to highly prestigious colleges and conservatories. Many do-- the Ivies, Julliard, Eastman, Curtis, etc.
