Kate Middleton: Family, Wealth and Background

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by Al_bina

Given the current discussion, I wonder what class within the British society super rich foreigners (i.e., Mittal et al.) belong to.

Super Rich Foreigner Class.

[Al_bina]

I see ... they have a class of their own. Not bad at all...

[Ella Kay]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

I don't see what she could do for charity, she would be unable to use her shaky royal connection.

Plus, I'm sure we'd immediately be subjected to Mail coverage about Kate "playing princess."

[Menarue]

Skydragon you made me smile about learning how to run an estate, my mother-in-law had the reputation of being a wonderful cook, could cure hams, and was an expert on all kinds of home skills. I saw her in action quite often. She would get up early, wake the cook and maids, tell them what to do exactly, and occasionally go into the kitchen with minute instructions. At lunch time everyone would praise her on her wonderful cooking......and of course, she would be exhausted.

[zembla]

The class system in England is tough, at least it looks that way from an outsider perspective. In America it seems much easier to move up, even if you come from nothing initially. Which is probably because of the lack of titles...

[KateFan]

Can someone please explain to me what a 2:1 degree is? Also, what are A-levels? Sorry, I am American.

[Little_star]

A Levels:
Advanced Level (UK - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

UK degree classification:
British undergraduate degree classification - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Elspeth]

Originally Posted by KateFan

Can someone please explain to me what a 2:1 degree is?

In British universities, degrees are conferred with one of three classes of honours, depending on how good the results are. The best are first-class honours degrees, then come second-class honours degrees, and then are third-class honours degrees. Universities occasionally award degrees without honours to someone who's done well enough to pass but not well enough to graduate with honours. Most degrees are second-class honours degrees, so to distinguish among them, they're divided into two divisions, upper and lower. A 2:1 degree would be the upper division of a second-class honours degree, which is a good result. I think there are more first-class honours degrees given out these days than in my day, but I know in my day only about 5% of degrees were first-class honours degrees, so it's no shame at all for someone to end up with a second-class honours degree; that's what most of them are.

As a general rule, if a person wants to stay on at university to do postgraduate work, a 2:1 degree would be considered good enough for them to do that.

Also, what are A-levels? Sorry, I am American.

"A levels" are exams that are taken at the end of the last year of high school. Again, things have changed since my day, but the exams are part of the General Certificate of Education qualifications. In my day, kids sat O-level exams (Ordinary level of the GCE) at age 16 (I think that would be the sophomore year in high school) and A-levels (Advanced level of the GCE) at 18 (the end of their senior year). At some point the O-levels were merged into another exam and turned into GCSEs instead of GCE O-levels, but the A-levels are still the way they always were.

Depending on aptitude and school policy and so on, people tend to take GCSE exams (or, previously, O-levels) in quite a few subjects - anything from 2 or 3 to 12 or 13 or sometimes even more. These are the exams Princess Diana famously failed all of her attempts at sitting. When they get to the stage of studying for A levels, kids are expected to specialise, and they usually take between 2 and 4 subjects. I don't know if it's still the case, but it used to be a legal requirement to have at least two A-level passes before you could get into university.

Just as an aside, the exams at Hogwarts are based on O-levels and A-levels. O.W.L.'s are Ordinary Wizarding Levels, and are taken at age 16, and N.E.W.T.s are the equivalent of A-levels and are taken in fewer subjects at age 18.

[zembla]

Thanks for all that info Elspeth! I was always curious what those terms meant as well...

[Duchess]

the "class system" in north america is vastly different because we don't have aristocrats so every level of the class system here is in direct relation to your personal wealth or lack of it. the upper class is the wealthiest, with the "old" money being at the top of the upper class. the lower level of the upper class or the upper middle class would be doctors or lawyers and business executives, depending on their annual income. middle class is where most....not all...people in north america would fall.

[Mermaid1962]

I agree with what you say for the most part except that there are many, many people in North America who are lower class or underclass. There are many poor people here.

Originally Posted by Duchess

the "class system" in north america is vastly different because we don't have aristocrats so every level of the class system here is in direct relation to your personal wealth or lack of it. the upper class is the wealthiest, with the "old" money being at the top of the upper class. the lower level of the upper class or the upper middle class would be doctors or lawyers and business executives, depending on their annual income. middle class is where most....not all...people in north america would fall.

[Duchess]

Originally Posted by Mermaid1962

I agree with what you say for the most part except that there are many, many people in North America who are lower class or underclass. There are many poor people here.

yes you're absolutely right.

[PrincessofEurope]

one question that always bothers me who pays for Kate's expensive upkeep (her regular beauty treatments, hair appointments with top-class hairdressers, expensive clothes and accessories, luxury holidays, London-flat in exclusive area and regular social-life)
Her parents i would imagne fund some of her lifestyle but they may be millionaires but her upkeep must cost quite abit and they have 2 other children to have funded through Marlbourgh College and university. But she cant have that much money of her own. So does William help to pay for her upkeep?

[Ella Kay]

I strongly doubt that William's paying for Kate's flat or major expenses. I really think the Middletons are probably wealthy enough to pay for Kate and Pippa to live in that flat in London (plus, Pippa has a job with at least some income). And I think James lives near home, if not at home.

[zembla]

Originally Posted by PrincessofEurope

one question that always bothers me who pays for Kate's expensive upkeep (her regular beauty treatments, hair appointments with top-class hairdressers, expensive clothes and accessories, luxury holidays, London-flat in exclusive area and regular social-life)
Her parents i would imagne fund some of her lifestyle but they may be millionaires but her upkeep must cost quite abit and they have 2 other children to have funded through Marlbourgh College and university. But she cant have that much money of her own. So does William help to pay for her upkeep?

That is definitely a mystery but I would assume her parents may look at it as an investment for now. I'm sure once Kate became famous their business really starting taking off in a bigger way as well...so they probably do even better money-wise.

I'm sure William pays anytime they go away together...for everything.

[Luv2Cruise]

What difference does it make who pays for Kate's living expenses? She's a private citizen. IF William pays for any of her living expenses or trips or entertainment for that matter, I'm sure it is from his own personal funds, i.e. his inheritance from his mother, etc. Again in which case it's a personal matter.

[MARG]

I am at a loss to understand the UK media. It is noone but Catherine's business who pays for Catherine's anything! Not her clothes, hair, flat, holiday, nothing!

She is a private citizen and until such time as it can be reasonably claimed that she is receiving taxpayers money noone has the right to demand answers to these and every other outrageous question.

[kats]

Sure, it's no one's business, but how she lives and what she does matter to people because she may potentially be their queen, and in these modern times, who wants someone who cannot support herself (if she had to); who's basically a hanger-on, as queen? And I'm not saying that she is, but sometimes an impression becomes the reality in some people's minds, especially if they hear it often enough. And that kind of reputation will be hard to erase, especially with the pervasiveness of salacious tabloids who will gladly invent stories to further stir the pot. This may seem old-fashioned of me, but I still see a princess/future queen as someone who could be a role model; someone young women can look up to and choose to emulate. I don't know about you, but I would like my children to choose someone independent, strong, and hard-working as their role model. Again, I am not saying that Kate is not any of these things; all I'm saying is that she should take care not to give the impression that she is not.

[Menarue]

Good post Kats. I think most mother´s would resent someone who they believed, or knew, was living off their son´s income. I too am not saying that Kate in particular is doing this but she should be very careful, as this is the impression that people are getting from their only source, the newspapers and magazines, whether it is true or not.
Does William love her enough to marry her? It is not all down to him, when you have a life of duty in front of you and belong to a royal family you have to think of that even if you think it intereferes with your pleasure.
Personally up until a certain point it didn´t seem to bother me either way, then the break up was announced and without even thinking about it I found I was thinking to myself "good, she wasn´t the right choice" they are back together again and have been for some time and I find it sad to think that if they break up again it is going to be terrible for her, but for him it won´t affect his future at all he will just get on with his royal life.

[misty777]

From reading these links and posts that are in this forum and connected to the links, it seems to me that Kate is just the kind of woman for Prince William and the BRF. She is strong and emotionally stable, and can endure the publicity and overcome speculations of Prince William. The problem is, when will they marry? It seems to me disappointingly that Prince William might be a the kind of man a woman calls a "stringer", this term describes a man who strings a woman along in a relationship a very long time and never marries her. I feel very sorry for Kate Middleton, unless the marry very soon, then I will feel better about the situation.