To go to a good school by default you need a significant head start in life with family wealth. I'm assuming you mean US Ivy League.
1. Biglaw regularly requires 60+ hour work weeks, but yes they can make 200k as an associate, not after tax though unless in partner level probably.
2. I can believe that, but in Miami it is unlikely they are clearing 100k after taxes.
3. This is definitely believable.
4. Believable.
5. Believable.
Nevertheless, I am pretty sure none of them are 1st / 2nd generation immigrants, because almost all of these require significant head starts in life that are granted at birth.
Moral of the story is, none of these pathways are really accessible for 99.9% of the population. Still good that you uncovered that the upper tier of american society can flourish like no place else.
You need WAY more than that. You need rich parents. A stable non-abusive childhood. Both parents need to be college educated or higher, typically. I mean for a top 20 college. My cousin got into Stanford, Yale, and Harvard. He was badly abused like I was, but his abuse was about 15% as bad as mine. He went to a prestigious high school that had some of the best teachers in the country for high school topics. He learned college level topics while in high school. The school required you to apply and take an entry exam and jump through hoops.
His mom was the smartest person of our older generation, that's a huge advantage.
Being wealth is almost necessary.
I would like to say that I helped him significantly in getting into Stanford, I honestly believe I did, but no way to prove it. I introduced him to self-improvement. What's bad is, he saw pick up and seduction and purely manipulative and victiminizing women. But he's never done cold approaches. Later on, he came out the closet as gay.
To him: "Dude, you saying every girl I lay is a victim and that every woman wants a monogamous relationship and no woman wants to have casual sex, THAT IS SEXIST." I suspect my grandpa molested him. That probably contributed or caused him to be gay.
My family is really ****ed up. I need to get away from them. Both my parents are compulsive liars that tell our entire extended family EVERYTHING personal about me. Seriously.... Get a therapist, don't ruin my reputation and life.
Oh, you need a certain level of innate intelligence (IQ is the closest way to measure it). IQ is attempting to measure your G-load, which can't be measured, your G-load is your actual intelligence. I've spent over 100 hours researching IQ.
An IQ of 120 means you can DO ANY FIELD, ANY JOB, EVERYTHING IS OPEN TO YOU. That dosen't mean it will be easy.
IQ of 132 is genius, that's top 2%.
My IQ is probably between 125 and 131, I took an adult IQ test and scored 121 but I didn't know it was an IQ test (shows how smart I am) and was deliberately missing questions and taking slower on questions, because I was being tested for a medication, so I thought if I did too well I wouldn't get the med. I know I'm not a genius. My sister and cousin are geniuses. I'm close. But not quite there.
Your support network matters too. My cousin had/has 2 loving little sisters. My little sister is a literal sociopath. (I mean LITERALLY)
Off topic story: One of his little sisters was more courageous than all of us (everyone my age in my family was abused horribly). She was the only one to ever call 911. I never die because I thought they'd take my mom away. The police showed up and her mom never abused her again.
Gonna summarize some of the abuse, may seem like TMI, but it's normal for me and the culture I'm from: Chasing kids with kitchen knives, holding the knives to the kid's throat (ALL BEFORE 10 years old), turning on the stove and threatening to burn the kid alive, dragging them towards the stove, chasing with boiling water, threatening to cut off your **** while you sleep, making you eat garbage, locking you outside in the winter, etc. I don't want my race to be viewed negatively so I'm not sure I should say. Although maybe I did in another post... lol. Being molested, as far as I know my cousin and I are the only ones who were molested. Worst part, when telling people, nobody believed us. Also, whenever abused, there was either no reason or a stupid reason (you're eating slow, which means you won't grow up to be tall, so you won't get married, so I won't get grandchildren, then beat the **** out of me).
It had its pros though. I understand true human suffering and have done a LOT of community service and volunteering. Especially with genocide and human rights. I met a guy who was from Africa, he escaped a genocide, and experienced atrocities, we clicked right away, human suffering is human suffering. It made me more compassionate. I will always spend a portion of my resources and time and energy volunteering and trying to make the world a better place.
****, went off topic.
Either having tutors hired for you or your parents can tutor you, that is huge for people who get into ivy league.
I am uncertain if there's any correlation between study drugs and chances of getting in. My cousin never took them. If anyone is reading this and hasn't taken them, don't start. It's a horrible rabbit hole to go down.
Hmm... Having great mentors. I have those now, but not in high school. My cousin has millionaires and college professors and such as his mentors in high school.
Now, I have similar, millionaires, world class pianists, Ivy league grads, world class weightlifters, world class competitive video gamers (I mention him because he is so ****ing good at the game, he was probably the best in the world for over 10 years). World of warcraft. Also, never play that game. It does nothing to enhance your life.
Hmmm... My cousin also mentioned tricking himself into studying harder and working harder. He imagined his sisters poor and failing and unable to attend college so he put himself in a very painful state to drive himself into working hard. I can't do that, because the scenario I know isn't real.
