Drawing on the six waves of the Korean Education Longitudinal Study of 2013, this study examined the effect of attending private elementary schools on the probability of entering elite high schools, namely special purpose high schools and autonomous private high schools. Results showed that students attending private elementary schools were more likely to enter elite high schools relative to other types of high school, compared to their counterparts attending public elementary schools, even after controlling for family background, student characteristics, and the location of middle schools attended. However, once the type of middle school attended by the students was controlled for, the difference in the likelihood of attending elite high schools relative to general high schools between private vs. public elementary school graduates was no longer statistically significant. This result suggests that the relationship between attending private elementary schools and the likelihood of attending elite high schools could be explained by the type of middle schools attended. In fact, our supplementary analysis indicated that a great number of private elementary school graduates entered private middle schools which maintain good admission results to elite high schools. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to the qualitative inequality of opportunity prior to higher education.