The application and attendance to these select top-tier schools is arduous, challenging and not open to all.

The conventional wisdom - among students, parents and guidance counselors - is that applying early improves chances, especially at top-tier schools.

Rice University, which is private, is also a top-tier school.

Sloanes are associated with being educated at top-tier private schools, known as Public Schools in England.

The asset management division is constituted of more than 300 MBA holders from top-tier schools.

"Just like with undergraduate degrees, if you're smart enough to get into a top-tier school, you're likely to inspire confidence."

"Even the top-tier schools are taking kids they might not have taken in the past," said William A. Spiegler, an education-marketing consultant.

"In our model, competition happens, not between the top-tier schools and the middle-ranked schools, but between schools of similar prestige," he said.

Top priority in top-tier primary schools would be given only to children whose parents had been sterilised before the age of forty.

Currently, around 650 students attend the top-tier private school.