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<p>I went to a magnet school where the average SAT score matched HYP. And the people who managed to get into the ivies could coast if they wanted to. It’s not a fantasy. (We had all taking organic chem and a lot of other advanced classes.) For instance, my multi-variable calculus class in high school was actually significantly harder than MIT’s (although in fairness, I didn’t take the theoretical version of calculus at MIT, just the regular version).</p>
<p>MIT and Caltech in general were exceptions, but even there if you majored in bio or applied math (rather than engineering) and took a manageable class load it wasn’t that taxing.</p>
<p>From my observation, there is a significant minority of people at the top ivies that can and do coast because it is not in their best interests to challenge themselves academically. This is why I don’t like how medical schools do their selection. There is a disincentive for further intellectual growth.</p>