http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/opinion/sunday/what-the-privileged-poor-can-teach-us.html?_r=0

argues that attending private high school makes a significant difference in the success rates of low income kids at highly selective colleges and universities.

The cultural shift was always the biggest shock for me going to a highly selective pwi. Income wise, my parents were well off by black southern standards but it wasn't intergenerational wealth (grandparents don't have hs diplomas/working class in the south).

so much of being successful at the highly selective places is learning the rules of the white super elite that exists in new york/new england/northeast. the kids who went to elite boarding school and prep school experienced a little bit of a less rude awakening (although i can't imagine navigating dalton or andover at 14 or 15).