<p>The irony of your question is that I know many people whose children have attended some of the most elite high schools in the nation. More than a few have regrets. When these schools flash their statistics, with admissions to the HYPS and such, they do not tell you that those students admitted are almost exclusively URM’s or legacies or athletes. I won’t speculate on the damage done to a young person’s idealism and self-confidence when someone of lesser talent or accomplishment is admitted to elite schools, sometime on full scholarship, and the ostensibly more qualified, harder working and higher achieving candidate is rejected flat-out. Then again, they may as well learn that while life is not fair, the cream eventually rises to the top.</p>