<p>Are private school students really that much better? As far as I know they simply pay a ton of money and walk into Ivys. I know a private school that sends kids with Cs and Bs into princeton. In fact, a large portion of the graduating class went to princeton. </p>
<p>I also know a bunch of friends/acquaintences who walked their way into a certain ivy because the school had connections there. I go to a decent public school that sends like 8 kids to ivys each year out of 300. A private school nearby that i know sends a quarter of its grade to Ivies.</p>
<p>How are you defining “better” students? Remember that the Ivy League is not a meritocracy. The admissions process is carefully crafted to choose the students who are best in the eyes of the school, not you.</p>
<p>SATs don’t test academic ability, they test how well you can take tests. I’m pretty sure that’s commonly accepted, at the very least among guidance counselors and teachers.</p>
<p>Wealth = opportunity. Don’t you forget that.</p>
<p>The private schools sending off big chunks of their graduating classes to Ivies have resources that public schools can’t compete with. Besides the presumably well-connected and competent GCs, they have excellent teachers, access to top tutors, and proper textbooks, labs, and computers. Furthermore, the students themselves (which we assume are fairly wealthy) don’t need to deal with time consuming things that many people do need to consider - part-time jobs and babysitting, for example. Finally, the atmosphere in schools like Exeter are far different than in regular state-funded public schools. Those kids have been and are being bred to become Ivy League material.</p>
<p>It’s the same difference between inner-city schools and public schools in the suburbs. The less resources you have, the more difficult it is to achieve, even if the populations were roughly similar in their capabilities to learn and succeed.</p>
<p>Not all private schools are high quality and not all public schools are low quality. I certainly didn’t attend a private school with great academic resources, yet, I still managed to get into an Ivy League university. Competent, determined students will create the “edges” for themselves.</p>