<p>If you’re confident in saying that the term wealthy describes parents in Belmont, then this largely is a money situation.</p>
<p>At many institutions, students who do not apply for financial aid are favored by the admissions department.</p>
<p>Here’s a list of colleges with “need-blind” admissions departments.</p>
<p>[Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission]Need-blind”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Granted, there are a lot of students you listed who were accepted by “need-blind” colleges. I imagine that their wealthy upbringing offered them a lot of privileges (e.g. SAT prep courses) that other students may not have had.</p>
<p>Also, I imagine you have an comprehensive college counseling program. I went to a small, small, small public high school in central Massachusetts, and while the students’ accepted colleges were good, they were not this diverse. I go to Hampshire College, which no one at my high school has ever heard of. There’s three students of your class heading there, which is - really - strange to me, given that it’s a pretty obscure school.</p>