Defined as: competitive SAT/ACT like 2100-2400, good GPA, good academics
School clubs like science olympiad, varsity sport, volunteer programs, etc.
But nothing really amazing like major awards, or no awards at all
no connections/no hooks
Yes, plenty. You can check the reuslts thread of the Ivy leagues and many people are ‘normal’.
Yep. And they all write fantastic essays. Which is why I’m on here under the handle “TheEssayGuy” - to get normal, high achievers to realize that all they need to do is showcase some creativity and attempt to make an impression.
Do I count? 
Then, yes.
This thread has the RD results for Harvard this year! http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1752941-harvard-university-class-of-2019-rd-results-p1.html As you can see, some kids had really amazing stats and some are more average. So I guess the answer to your question is yes 
@skieurope
In all fairness, u were not a plain vanilla applicant.
Thanks for all the replies guys!! I have looked at the results, I have also met many people who have gained admission and they are truly amazing! They all win nationals for debate or talk to their senator, etc.
I like to think of myself as pretty ‘normal’
@sweetea There can only be so many Intel winners, debate winners etc. So for the Ivies, Stanford, MIT that’s 10 schools, and about 15000-20000 kids go there every year. There’s no way that all of them won some kind of amazing award as there are only so many awards to go around.
Yes, plenty do. And the ones who don’t generally end up at other great colleges and universities.
Now we’re all curious. Please elaborate.
At least in our major metro area, all the kids who got into ‘those schools’ were exceptional - including the legacies. Not just top grades and test scores, but above and beyond in some meaningful way. So in answer to your question, if there are ‘normal’ competitive kids in those schools, they aren’t coming from the major metro areas where thousands of strong students are all applying to the same places.
Yes, but please have a good backup plan you are happy with. My son is a very good student, high test scores, valedictorian of his class, etc. and he got totally shut out of all four Ivies he applied to. Fortunately we had a backup plan and he will be starting at a great college next month. But if we did not have that backup plan, he would either be at a state safety school, or our family would be financially strained by sending him to a school we really cannot afford.
So I say, aim high and apply to as many Ivies as you want…but please, please, please apply to a few less-competitive schools as well as one or two true safeties that you are happy with!
Seems pretty simple, huh?
I’d consider myself fairly average in the way you described it. It got me into Cornell and a few waitlists at “Ivy-equivalent” schools.