losing its appeal

Have two high school kids in D.C. area private school, where there are a ton of high achieving kids and wealthy parents... and I cannot overstate how much desire to get into an Ivy has been diminished in everyone's view.

This stuff is a good example why. Everyone knows the… https://t.co/X9YnRqgGTe

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) April 10, 2025

Again, annoyingly: where does the hyphen go, and why?

ADDENDUM: You know what? This is a meatier question than it looks, so I'm gonna answer it on this post. As I've explained repeatedly, you hyphenate phrasal adjectives that precede the nouns they modify. for example: a tax-paying citizen, a six-foot-tall man, a three-week vacation, a violent-weather seminar (without the hyphen, that last expression turns into a weather seminar that got violent). There are, however notable exceptions to this rule, such as when the phrasal adjective is considered so common that leaving out the hyphen would produce no ambiguity. The above tweet contains the paradigm case of that: high school student. For me, though, "considered so common" is a judgment call, so for safety's sake, I'd still hyphenate: high-school student(s).  But in that instance, you're free to do what you want, so I wouldn't ding the tweet for the lack of hyphenation there. But elsewhere in the tweet, there definitely must be a hyphen: high-achieving kids.

It doesn't apply to this tweet, but there's another notable exception to the hyphenation rule: if the first word of the phrasal adjective is an adverb ending in -ly, you don't hyphenate, as with the expression a rapidly deteriorating situation. Is that a nerdy, pedantic exception? You bet. But look it up: I'm not hallucinating. The Chicago Manual of Style Online (Section 7.91) puts it this way (link, but subscription only):

When compound modifiers (also called phrasal adjectives) such as high-profile or book-length precede a noun, hyphenation usually lends clarity. With the exception of proper nouns (such as United States) and compounds formed by an adverb ending in ‑ly plus an adjective (see 7.93), it is never incorrect to hyphenate adjectival compounds before a noun. When such compounds follow the noun they modify, hyphenation is usually unnecessary, even for adjectival compounds that are hyphenated in Merriam-Webster (such as well-read or one-sided). Two additional exceptions apply: First, unless ambiguity threatens, a noun in the form of an open compound can usually remain open when used as a modifier before another noun (high school student, guest room access; see also 7.90); when in doubt, check Merriam-Webster. Second, certain terms listed as hyphenated adjectives in Merriam-Webster remain hyphenated after the noun (see 7.92). [boldface added]

So where does the hyphen go in the above tweet? Between high and achieving.

John McCrarey recently blogged:

So, we had one of those damn all day brownouts (power outage[s]) yesterday. 

Where does the hyphen go, and why?