I don’t think that people say that. Most people say that they are reach schools or low probability schools. Let’s say that a student with a 1580 on the SAT vs. a 1520 on the SAT gets a 1 vs. a 2. One, plenty of people with 2s are accepted, so it shouldn’t be discouraging to the 1520. Secondly, the odds for the 1580 person might be better than the 1520 person, but their odds are still extremely low.
Maybe one candidate is particularly impressive above and beyond the regular very strong applicant, so they have a higher chance of acceptance. Maybe it’s 2, 3, 4, or even 5 times likelier than for the regular very strong student. Guess what, their odds of admission just went from 3% to maybe 15%. Still a low probability result with how we generally categorize admissions (i.e. less than 20% is low probability).
When do people say that striving for excellence is a negative?
The mental health crisis amongst many teenagers is scary, and there have been many instances of self-harm related to pressure around college. I think that as human beings we have an obligation not to make that worse and, if possible, to make the situation better.
Instead of comforting a student and saying, hey, your odds might be 15% instead of 3%, I think it’s better to make sure the student has a number of options that they’re excited about and that have a higher likelihood of acceptance.