Really? Obviously only a subset of kids get into any Ivy+ (many do not even apply). But among those kids who do, I seem to recall plenty of kids choosing between multiple Ivy+ admits, and again considering offers (sometimes merit offers) from other traditional T20s, highly selective LAC offers, and so on.
Again I can’t answer for what other people might be claiming, but our high numbers kids, with the help of our college counselors, typically identify at least two of what we call Likelies, and definitely almost always get into both.
To me what seems more apparent is that certain colleges that once were considered Likelies for high numbers coastal kids are no longer Likelies for high numbers coastal kids, and so if they want to get a true Likely they may need to consider colleges they would not have had to consider before. (Edit: I see another poster made the same point.)
Like, Pitt is a super popular Likely among our high numbers kids, for a variety of reasons–no sign of yield protection, good all around university in a fun city, rolling admissions so if you apply early enough you might get an offer before you are even applying elsewhere, possible merit, possible honors, and so on. And I have not heard of any kid for whom we classified Pitt as a Likely, and who applied reasonably early, not getting accepted.
And again, I feel like this is true of many kids on CC. Like, IF they cast a wide net, and apply to some colleges that the knowledgeable people here suggest will be very Likely admits for them, they in fact tend to get admitted to those colleges!
Edit: Actually, I just remembered we did some polling about Ivy admits:
Just quickly scanning the admits, I can see several of the kids I personally know about who got multiple Ivy admits. I am not sure who all the letters might be, but I am sure there are more.