As others have pointed out, even if the 35% in the headline is accurate, it includes a large portion of kids who not only have great grades and test scores, but also have some other significant boost. They are recruited athletes, artists, and/or academics, legacies, URMs, first generation college, major award winners, from an underrepresented state or demographic, etc. If you strip all that away, the boost for grades only is not nearly as significant as you estimate.
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