I was in an honors program (many MANY years ago), and everyone was in a special dorm. The first few weeks, we sat around feeling superior and talking about our high SAT scores and so on…then we all realized we were idiots. From what I understand, this happens a lot at elite schools, too.
I read an interesting article by an MIT grad who arrived at MIT with a 780 on his math SAT. In his high school, that was more than respectable. Once he got to MIT, it put him in the bottom third – which gave him great perspective. There’s always going to be someone smarter and less smart than you. Colleges are what you make of them.