<p>The one thing that is never mentioned in the New York Times article is that Mr. Jack and the other students mentioned managed to escape their crappy local public school systems and get themselves into elite private and magnate public high schools where taking advanced courses and prepping for the SATs are the norm. Those schools should get all the praise. Amherst just cherry-picked from from a group of students that were already well-trained. I have the highest respect for these students, but I would have more respect for Amherst if it had taken a chance on an inner city kid who might have been a star in his regular inner-city broken-down high school.</p>