<p>Colleges keep going back to the same high schools because those schools have a track record of producing students with strong scholastic excellence and achievement. For example, In New York City 29,000 eighth graders yearly sit for a test for admission to specialized public high schools like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science – and only the absolute top scorers are admitted, which is why statistically those high schools have an acceptance rate lower than HYPS and M. Ditto with schools like Thomas Jefferson High School, Boston Latin, etc. Colleges keep going back to the same schools because student-for-student those institutions are packed with more intellectual fire-power per square inch than the average high school, which is why Stuyvesant and Bronx Science produce more Intel Finalists, National Merit Finalists and Semifinalists than any other high school in the country. That’s why more half the kids graduate from those high schools and go on to the ivies and other top colleges – not because colleges ‘like’ those schools better.</p>