There are plenty of top students without “hooks” who don’t play a varsity sport in college…who get accepted to the Ivies. But with acceptance rates at under 10% of applicants…all of the qualified applicants cannot be acceoted…and they aren’t.
Anyone applying to the Ivies should be casting a wide net. The reality is even those who continue to play a varsity sport, are Seimens winners or something like that, and who have some other amazing hook…are not guaranteed acceptance at the Ivies or similar schools like S and M.
And if course, the Ivies, M and S do not give a penny of merit aid. So if that is your hunt…getting acceoted to one of these schools isn’t going to help you financially.