<p>I would disagree with people who suggest that admission to Harvard, or any other top colleges, is “crapshoot” or “like winning a lottery”. There are hard data (Common Data Set) out there from each institution. Some instituitions such as Stanford release more helpful informations than others (such as Harvard and Yale, which took a mimimalist approach). If the test scores land an applicant in the top 25% of the admitted student body, the chance for admission to at least one of the HYPSM is actually very good. Applicants with scores in the bottom 25% are seldomly admitted without some hooks (URM, atheletic, etc). Adcom people actually spend the majority of their time debating the merits of applicants in the middle 50% range.</p>