You make it sound like it’s rare to get into good universities in the UK from state schools. But most of the students at the UK’s top universities come from state schools.
You’re right about networking though. Even if you go to Oxford, for example, you can find that there are exclusive cliques and clubs there that are only open to the “right kind” of people. These will be wealthy kids who went to a few expensive public (that is, private) schools. The networking begins long before they even get to university.
That’s true, I didn’t mean getting in a prestigious university was rare from a state school, but rather those are certainly the “exceptional students” considering the stringent acceptance requirements. I only explained why rich parents would spend the money on private schools to give their child an edge. There are certainly cases where admissions are allowed because of family lineage or sizeable donations.
As far as I know you can only apply to Oxford or Cambridge, and furthermore you can’t apply to more than five universities in the UK except for rare occasions.