<p>Contrary to popular belief, not everyone is qualified. Many of us who make phenomenal grades with all hard classes on our schedules and also pull test scores that make the middle 50% of these top schools (2200 on SAT and 32 on ACT) underrate ourselves thinking that most of the applicant pool to these top schools match us academically. This is not true. Remember, academics above all. Past that, just to condense all those “books on admission,” it is about how interesting of a person you are. It is all about standing out. If you are a genuinely interesting person then they want you. Also, at this highest tier you are talking about, the colleges are looking for students that are already very successful. That goes hand-in-hand with being very interesting. It is rare to find a high school student that has successes that match the gravity of achievements by adults working in the industry. It is a misconception that going to a school like HYP leads to success. They pick people that are already successful, it minimizes the risk that the alumni would bring any shame upon the name on the degree. Pick a kid that has already proved his/her capacity for success and the chance that this kid will go on to give a good name to your university and continue fueling the misconception that going to a uni like HYP leads to success. The colleges are thinktanks, they want to put on the image that going there will lead you to greater success than others, this way more kids will apply and they have more chances to find hidden talents. Examples of successes of great gravity that get kids into schools like HYP are starting companies (and various forms of entrepreneurship), having your name on a significant research publication, placing high in a talent competition like Intel Talent Search, anything essentially showing that despite your age you’ve made a great contribution to society. All of this on top of great academics of course, unless you’ve got certain hooks to make up.</p>