You can have "not wealthy parents" and still not get approval for financial aid if you're over a certain threshold. And plenty of people get into prestigious schools but don't have the grades/accolades to get a merit scholarship.

And with the cost of schools only rising, the impact on families that might appear "well off" only increases too. So people get loans. And maybe that loan will be worth it and the networking you do will pay for it. Or maybe it won't.

I would argue that for many people, unless it's not just an elite school but THE elite school, it probably doesn't pay off.

> Any elite school will be much cheaper than a state school (possibly free) if you don’t have very wealthy parents.

This was not at all true in my situation.

Over ten years later, I imagine some things are different, and I know some very rich schools have shifted certain policies since then.