<p>Unless the “family friend” in question works in admissions at said school and has all the relevant information about your child, I can’t see how the opinion would even be valid. Have these people actually expressed the sentiment that your kid is not smart (hard to believe someone would be this socially inept), or have they just idly commented on how hard certain schools are for anyone to get into?</p>
<p>It’s true that many selective schools are hard to get into, but these institutions all concede that they reject many qualified applicants who could be quite successful. There simply just isn’t enough room to accept every suitable student.</p>