In general, the students I talked to condemned others for being “flashy” and feeling the need to “show off” how wealthy they are. Like Stacey, Emily suggests that one should appreciate his or her possessions, but not to the point of fetishizing them. Interestingly, no one ever “’fessed up” to being one of these allegedly materialistic students. The flashy, materialistic student, then, becomes a mythical figure, a trope that effectively conceals one’s own privilege.

— Educating elites by Adam Howard, Rubén A. Gaztambide-Fernández