<p>I'm wondering if a large number of qualified, 2300+ SAT and 4.0 gpa students, get rejected from all five of these schools? What about applicants with these stats and a smattering of awards?</p>
<p>I personally know at least a dozen of kids like those you mentioned who did not get into any of HYPSM. I’m talking top of the class, perfect/close-to-perfect GPAs, 2300+ SATs, many awards for science/debate/writing/etc, good essays… the whole package.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, since there are so many kids like this, they can’t all be accepted. It’s been said by top schools that if they threw out the applications of the kids they admitted each year and filled in their places with the next best group of students, there would be no difference at all in caliber.</p>
<p>Yes, statistically the vast majority of the applicants with those stats MUST get rejected. Anyone who has had a kid at a top high school has seen kids with these stats and no hook get rejected again and again. Half the class is taken before the unhooked get a look, this leaves very few spots for the non athlete, non URM, non legacy, top students.</p>
<p>Those schools get so many applicants with top-end academic numbers (4.0 GPA or close to it in the most rigorous courses available, 700+ on each SAT section and/or 32+ on each ACT section) that they will reject most such students.</p>