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You’re right that regular high school counselors are clueless because most high schools rarely send any students to the elite schools and graduates usually pick the cheapest in-state option so these GCs have very little exposure to the best public and private schools in the country.</p>
<p>However, the GCs that USNWR interviews come from a combination of the best public and prep schools in the country that send scores of their students to elite universities so these individuals are well-versed in the world of institutional reputation; if they have been serving in that capacity for any extended length of time, the GCs will have a ton of firsthand knowledge of the education offered at these schools from the impressions of students that they have mentored and researched these universities for.</p>
<p>The IUPI ranking is an unintentional gaffe: it reflects the fact that most graduates of the best American high schools don’t attend institutions like Purdue or Indiana for the most part. The bottom feeders at these schools are more likely to go to Boston College or Wisconsin.;)</p>