Fat Envelope Frenzy
One Year, Five Promising Students, and the Pursuit of the Ivy League Prize
Chapter One
"He's quiet and, of course, wants to be a doctor"
Felix
Felix Zhang is wearing one of his many Harvard sweatshirts. "I've always loved the school," he says, "not just because it's Harvard, but because it has everything in one place." It is the third week of September. Felix and I are eating chocolate brownies in the Barnes & Noble café in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, a posh suburb fifteen miles west of Philadelphia. Berwyn is on the Main Line, a term that is shorthand for desirable real estate. Many wealthy families in the greater Philadelphia metropolitan region seek out this cluster of exclusive suburban towns in close proximity to the convenient commuter rail.
At first glance, Berwyn could easily be caricatured as the perfect place to raise a family. With large homes and manicured lawns, more than half of the residents are married with children. The town is remarkably homogenous: most residents are rich (the median family income i ... read full excerpt from: Fat Envelope Frenzy ebook
