Agree. And it’s not just wealthy- a local parochial school in my area brags that it gets over 90% of its seniors into their top choice college. Are they lying? No. Their guidance counselors are experts at sitting the kid down who is convinced that Dartmouth is his first choice and saying (in a way that the kid can hear, and process) “Dartmouth isn’t happening. So here is a list of 5 schools for you to research that have many of the qualities you seem to like”. And for the legacy kids- they know who is or isn’t getting into Georgetown no matter how many parents/uncles/aunts are alums. And those are the kids who are getting excited about Holy Cross and Marist and Providence and other easier admits. Student body isn’t all wealthy. But the families understand when the college counselor says “You aren’t getting into BC but you are gonna LOVE XYZ school”.
That’s how you get 90% into their first choice- change the channel! And the GC’s are also skilled at reducing the “bunching” which happens at my local public HS. They know that half the class isn’t getting into Penn. It’s not happening. So they spread the wealth so to speak. The local public HS isn’t in the business of telling 20 of its seniors “find another place to ED”. You wanna ED to Penn? Have at it.