it's supposed to be an exclusive club for privileged upper middle class to upper class kids where they spend years 17-21 polishing themselves and expanding thei

it's supposed to be an exclusive club for privileged upper middle class to upper class kids where they spend years 17-21 polishing themselves and expanding their social networks before heading into cities to get jobs as white collar professionals, attending graduate school, or pursuing a 'pure' career in academia if their families are sufficiently wealthy. that's more or less how it still works at the good private schools, with exceptions at the margin for extremely bright talent from less wealthy family/means. public schools are supposed to break this pattern, but the best ones basically have turned into the same thing (california, michigan, virginia, north carolina, etc.) with their own hierarchy of elite campuses/locations and in-crowd associations (greek, etc.) the entire system breaks down if you treat it as something fundamentally different, or have some invented set of expectations for what you get out of it.