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<p>From my perspective, I see it the other way around. At our school, their bread-and-butter is getting kids into the local state schools and importantly, finding scholarships / financial aid options that make the kids able to go in the first place. The perspective towards the smarter kids is – hey, great to shoot for Harvard or Georgetown or wherever, and good luck to you, but if all you wind up at is Univ of Illinois, hey, nothing wrong with that school either. IOW, if you’re smart, you’ll do just fine wherever you go and it’s just not the priority to be figuring out how to get them into the most selective schools. </p>
<p>And frankly, I see their point – what IS more important, getting Smarty McSmartpants into MIT for engineering when it’s not the end of the world if he goes to U of Illinois’ well-ranked engineering program (and the McSmartpants have to like that it’s cheaper too!), or getting Suzy McMiddleClass’s parents to come up with a way to get her to Northern Illinois University vs community college? For every Smarty McSmartpants, they have 25 Suzy McMiddleClasses.</p>