<p>That is usually the case only for colleges where there a handful of local high schools (usually one public and/or 1-2 dominant privates) that are “the only game in town” for professors and comparable elites living near the university. Ithaca HS, Hanover HS, Moses Brown and (maybe) Classical [public Latin] HS in Providence, Princeton has its incredibly expensive public high school. Nothing like that is true for colleges like Harvard or Columbia which are in big cities with, literally, dozens of strong high schools in the metro area. </p>
<p>Boston Latin enrolls more students at Harvard than Andover or Exeter. Consider the National Merit semifinalist numbers:</p>
<p>Philips Andover: 37</p>
<p>Newton public schools: 37
Lexington public high school: 17
Buckingham Brown & Nichols (Cambridge private, 115 grads/year) : 9 </p>
<p>(The above three, plus Brookline, Belmont, Arlington and assorted private schools, are where professors send their kids.)</p>
<p>Boston Latin : 4 </p>
<p>[Local</a> national merit scholarship semi-finalists named - Globe West Updates - Boston.com](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/regional_editions/globe_west/west/2008/09/_dozens_of_mass.html]Local”>http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/regional_editions/globe_west/west/2008/09/_dozens_of_mass.html)</p>