Opportunity is in the eye of the beholder in what you either can afford, will be made affordable for you (merit or aid) or are willing to pay for. No one is questioning School A’s marketability or prestige that is completely not the point of the discussion. My point was that people perceive opportunities differently. The OP (and probably his parents) perceived it as gaining admission to a pretigious school (Ivy or S or M or JHU o D or CMU among others, so not limited to ivy) which they were more than willing to pay for. GMT perceived opportunity differently. GMT had said “In DS’s case, opportunity meant merit money, which automatically ruled out Ivy. DS worked hard, graduated at the top of his class, and was awarded very handsomely for his delayed gratification.” That is great for GMT. That was not the OPs goal. Different people, different goals. I do not think either is better.
Someone who is very wealthy and connected may not care where their kid goes as long as they are happy or they may want only the best because the kid will one day take over their empire. Again different perceptions, even when starting from the same.