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<p>1990s? That type of thing was described in the 1950s by Vance Packard in The Status Seekers, where HYP were noted as admitting about half of their class from elite prep schools (which were then more SES elite than academically elite) and the other half from public schools. The public school graduates were the ones who had the higher academic achievement at HYP, while the prep school graduates were content with gentlemen’s C grades.</p>
<p>HYP were described as having to deal with the conflict between admitting enough prep school applicants in order to keep the donations coming from their parents, and admitting more public school applicants to maintain the academic eliteness. Obviously, it has shifted more to the latter, and the prep schools have raised their academic standards to compete, though the conflict still remains with respect to legacy and developmental preferences in admissions.</p>