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<p>Um, I never went to a prep school, but you are mistaken if you think the prep schools in the midwest are the same animal as in the northeast. Certainly, they don’t have Harvard officials milling about the campus giving advice and aren’t feeder schools to HYP. I went to a couple of different schools, a big one like your daughters (2400) and a small public magnet (~600). A school with 400 students likely wouldn’t have been able to sustain 20-30 teams. Think about the numbers here. If most people play one varsity sport, that means there is 1-2 people per team. It would be tough to field a football team in particular. I know in the big school I was in, yeah, it was tougher to make varsity, but I don’t think lettering confers a significant advantage if you are not recruitable. If you just want some well-rounded points, big schools have junior varsity too. I do see your point, but I think you are exagerrating the sports angle. A small public would also be easier to make varsity, though you’re right that a private school might have more funding to support more teams with a smaller student body.</p>
<p>Besides, if you accept that there is a greater concentration of academic talent on these schools, it is harder to make the academic teams there. Someone that could be captain of the math team at a regular school might not even make the team at Exeter. For the record, I do think Exeter has more academic talent than your average public though not enough to justify the 30-40 acceptances per year they get to Harvard (which I read on cc.) </p>
<p>I did have one friend who went to a prep school in the Midwest, one that did have some name recognition, and I think he was the only one in his class to get into HYP (and he was a legacy.)</p>