<p>It seems that a lot of people on this forum have a phobia about the Ivies and other "top-tiered schools."</p>
<p>But quite frankly, so many people in my school who don't have the test scores, don't have the GPA, don't have the ECs...etc. keep getting into these schools. A rediculous number (I think about 20?) every year consistantly get into Cornell. Same number last few years for Columbia. Last year 3 went to Harvard, which is a pretty consistant number for us (i.e. +/-1) Pretty much same trend for Yale and +1 for Princeton. ETC. the list goes on and on...</p>
<p>Are kids at my school just really good at writing essays and getting recommendations, or am I just missing something here? Or maybe all of our guidance counselors are nice and make it look like we were all valedictorians (HA jk I love my guidance counselor tho)</p>