I am in tech, as you might guess ;) I know the type of people mentioned in the parent comment, they go to a handful of schools I could name specifically, and the reason they are that way is that they are either the children of multi-millionaires of billionaires, or are friends with someone who falls into that category, or at the very least go to the school and benefit from the parent donations and atmosphere. That isn't to say that there isn't a drive to do well at other schools in the valley, but it's nothing like "I'm going to start the next big thing", it's more like "I'll make good money at FAANG someday" for most people.
For the record: My gf’s parents went out of their way to ensure she went to that specific school. I’m told it pretty much broke them financially to have the correct zip code.
Indeed it's common for parents to go to great lengths to put their children into the right school. It's a bit sad that there are so high differences between quality of schooling in the US. Having the right/wrong friends can change entire lives, as can the teaching. That being said, telling kids they either start the next facebook or they are losers and have to take a loser FANG job is a bit bit overdone though... But I guess it all depends on perspective. If you are already in the upper class, you want your children to get upper class jobs and upper class success as well.
