Most of my friends have college age kids. I haven’t met a parent who doesn’t say their child is special. If I think of one kid that truly made an impression in my mind it would be my friends son. He graduated from a STEM Magnet school. He got into top ten schools. He decided to attend the state school with a full four year scholarship for college. Father said are you sure? The elder son had gone to University of Pennsylvania majoring in Biophysics. He said yes dad I will be successful here. He graduated with top honors with a degree in Electrical engineering. Senior year he decides that he wants to go to med school. Elder brother attend NYU med school after graduating from Penn. He is now attending Tufts for medicine. Both sons were truly MIT/Standford caliber kids. Will they be successful. Definitely.
These kids were going to be successful no matter what school they went to for undergrad. They just were cream of the crop kids and though their parents were interested in their education the students were go getters. They had the motivation and the ability to succeed. Elder one is going into General Surgery. There are lots of super smart kids at state schools who don’t have the ability to finance a top school. Not everyone is ready to take out college loans.