They can enroll lots of high stats kids because they’re cherry picking among a huge volume of them. But, when you look, eg, at the info on the Princeton,admissions site, you can see less than 10% of applicants offering a 4.0 or 1500-1600 SAT were admitted. Granted, some is that is geo diversity, balance in majors. gender, etc. But a chunk is also about the additional attributes the college wants, what they feel makes a vibrant, engaged campus. And, how kids present themselves. Not all top performers necessarily get it.