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<p>That is what the thread title promised as to HYPM, and of course that is not true at all. The statistical reasoning error in that thread was apparent to everyone who has had a good statistics course, and of course the key issue is that a lower-tier Ivy may not be the target college for someone applying to Harvard or MIT. All eight of the Ivy League colleges are fine colleges, and their aggregate freshman class sizes are such that most of the higher-scoring, high-GPA students who apply to them will be admitted SOMEWHERE, but Ivy League admission is difficult precisely because it isn’t a walk in the park to both score high on a college entrance test and maintain a high GPA at a challenging high school. The quality of the high school matters–plenty of high school valedictorians are rejected across the board at all eight Ivy League colleges because they went to wimpy high schools and took easy courses.</p>