Elite schools are there for two types of students: A) Incredibly smart and hard-working students that want to be around the leading experts in their fields. Th

Elite schools are there for two types of students: A) Incredibly smart and hard-working students that want to be around the leading experts in their fields. These kids end up as post docs / researchers, and get to work/stay close to those schools. B) The ones that want to land elite jobs (gov / banking / finance / law / etc.) - for these, the social activities are quite more important. Don't get me wrong, you need to be a top-tier student / pupil to get in, and the latter students are also such. But different priorities.