@fiftyfifty1 the high school in question was one of the GLADCHEMS prep schools, and, at the time (10+years ago – things have changed for the better) what the class president said was pretty true.
Of course “you can get there from here” and it’s totally not northeastern snobbery on my part (none of my kids went to college in the northeast, lol). There are elite schools in the Midwest, and I am pretty certain it will be easier for a kid to break into finance if they’ve attended U Chicago, Wash U, Grinnell etc etc etc than if they’ve attended Gustavus Adophus, John Carroll, etc etc etc. Note I said easier, not that it’s impossible from the latter schools, just much, much more difficult.