@Hanna. “That’s the gap between, say, Duke and Vandy. There is no meaningful difference in the qualifications or capabilities of the students there”
At our HS we regularly get kids in the top 10 percent with a 32 into Vandy. We’ve never since tracking gotten a kid into Duke unless top 3 percent and a 35+. Maybe our school is an anamoloy but this pattern seems to hold.
My neice with a 32 got into every school she applied to ranked 12-20. And not one in the 1-11 rank that she applied to. So it depends what you mean by " qualifications".