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<p>Yes, unfortunately in a country with more than 20,000 high schools, and with some colleges that are internationally known admitting only 1600 students a year or so, there is a lot of possibility that a really outstanding high school student will be just an ordinary applicant. At some colleges, that is no problem--they are in the business of admitting students who are in the top half, but not necessarily the top 10 percent, of their high school classes. But I see every year here on CC some parents who suppose, because Junior has always been at the top of his high school class, that Junior is a shoo-in at [insert name of famous college here]. Well, not necessarily, because the top kid from every other high school in the country may be applying to the same college, and that college doesn't have room for all those valedictorians. Students who ace the SAT I test are much rarer than valedictorians, but they are still numerous enough to not be very impressive to the top colleges. </p>
<p>Thus one thing a student has to "be careful" about is to think of what else the student has done that is outstanding, besides getting good grades in high school and good scores on entrance tests. Anything that a student can do to be busy with someone important to that student, challenging and developing, will help round out an application. For applications to really, really selective colleges, it doesn't hurt at all to pursue personal interests in a way that leads to meeting high school kids with the same interest from all over the country. That can help students have "role models" and also to get news about which top colleges are of greatest interest to students with that interest. Usually, that helps a student broaden an application list (see above :) ) which in turn reduces the student's chances of dissapointment when admission decisions are issued. </p>
<p>Any student can have a bad day (taking an admission test) or a bad semester (taking a high school class). One doesn't have to be faultless to get into even the most selective college, but it helps to have perspective on the numbers both to be humble if the dream comes true, and to be resilient if the dream is rebuffed.</p>