There is no shame in not getting accepted into a top 10 academic school. So many applicants have extraordinary credentials and don't get selected. It's amazing that their average GPA is 4+ and SAT score is over 1500. If you remove their special populations: recruited athlete, donor, legacy, faculty children, under-represented minority, first generation college student (all of whom potentially account more than 1/2 of the admitted class), how much higher would those averages as well as those extracurricular standards get? It really is an impossible academic standard. | 
