a boy in my high school class had 10 APs which he scored 5’s on all, a whole bunch of honors classes, 4.80 gpa (we were at a private school), perfect score on sat’s multiple times, a whole bunch of impressive leadership activities and extracurriculurs and he got into harvard…another boy had the exact same qualifications and he didn’t get into harvard…

the difference between the two..the first boy had an uncle who works at harvard and the second didn’t(and they were in different graduating classes so it’s not competition that rejected the second boy)….i think it has a lot to do with connections

Apart from special cases like children of alumni and top athletes, all competitive schools are looking for future leaders of one sort or another. The Ivy League schools take a broad view – future leaders in academia, business, politics, technology are all good. Caltech and MIT and a few other schools like them are looking for future leaders in science and technology. The service academies are looking for future military leaders. So what matters is that you demonstrate that you are really exceptional in some way. You need to show you’re bright and energetic, and then that you have some passion that will take you to the top of some field.

Take a lot of AP classes, do good in all of them, take honors classes, get a good GPA, perfect score on SAT’s, a whole bunch of impressive leadership activities and extracurriculars and try to get into Harvard.

VERY high grades, VERY high test scores, LOTS of money, MORE money, and MORE money,

Its not always what you know, but who you know….