In the town that I currently live in, but am not originally from, people just succinctly ask "so where did you go to school?" And they don't mean college.

/continuing the random aside, because I find that completely annoying (not to mention life-limiting) as well.

Ha ha! My college sweetheart is from STL, and after 5 years of dating him, I started asking that same question. I usually asked it as part of the "who do you know?" game--at my college, most of the STL kids came from a handful of schools.

He, on the other hand, was classist about it in that if people went to certain private (ie, non-Catholic) schools, or public schools in "certain" cities, he'd get all populist-snobby about it.

I found St. Louis to be one of the most provincial places I've ever visited, at least in that regard.

It's incredibly class-based. Private school in STL costs more per year than your average college does. And they're also unusual in that most of them are single-sex. It's all who you know-where-you're-from-who-your-parents-are-how-important-are-you.

I nannied for a kid who was interviewing for JR HIGH.. Their plan was that if he didn't get in anywhere, they would rent an apartment in Clayton to establish residency because they were a 'good' public school. I just couldn't fathom dressing an 11-12 year old up in a suit to interview for schools

There's a pretty funny book about a PR director's experience in a St. Louis private school (he disguised it, but a lot of St. Louisans were pretty sure it was MICDS), called "Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler."

Here in NYC, middle school interviews are a piece of cake. It's the KINDERGARTEN interviews that cause the gnashing of teeth. It's funny, I'm not even mortified by it the way that I might have been when I first moved here. In fact, it's probably going to be part of my life as a parent in NYC.

i'll have to look for that book.

And yes, I can't even fathom the idea of putting my not yet born baby on a waiting list for preschool much less interviewing for it, or for kindergarten.

I'm just not having kids, it's the simplest answer.

Same thing with Louisville. To this day, if I meet someone else from my hometown the first question is "Where did you go to school?"