“As for the realistic thing, it’s probably smarter to think of the acceptance rate as your odds but I personally don’t… If you think about it how many C+ students, students with no social skills, or students with no extracurriculars applied to big names like Harvard and Stanford. I would say it’s like a 30% for students like you who seem adept at everything, but I can’t say anything for sure! I’m just a senior student.”
This is very far from the truth. In fact, most of the applicants to top notch schools are excellent. Very few poor students are throwing in an application for a school like Princeton just to see what happens. There is enough information available these days that students know if they are generally in the ballpark. Further, high school guidance counselors will discourage applications that are frivolous because it reflects poorly on them and wastes everyone’s time.