When our daughter was looking to apply to colleges back in the early 2000’s she looked at a wide variety of schools. She was a swimmer. She could have swum in any of the athletic divisions including the mid major D1 schools like the Ivies. She would have gotten in early decision there based on her times if she had contacted any one of the swim coaches ahead of time. She had both the academics and the swim talent.

So it’s not just people of color who get into Ivies, but they probably get in at a greater rate. They also have a number of reserved slots for athletes, musicians, alumni children and kids with other specialties.

However, she didn’t apply to any Ivy. She passed on multiple scholarships (much to our chagrin) to go to a small private college. (No scholarship but as an only child we had saved enough for her to attend). It was a very good fit for it.

One of the parents of a friend on her swim team worked at an Ivy League school. She said the college my daughter (and her daughter) attended was much more challenging than any of the Ivies. She said the Ivies are notorious for grade inflation. Handing out mostly A’s and B’s for all the students. The hardest thing about them was getting into the Ivies but once you get in it is very hard to fail as long as you went to class and did the work assigned.

The Ivies are overrated and overhyped. There are a lot of good colleges and universities out there where your kid can get a better education including many of the state schools. As long as they select a degree program that can actually get them a job when they graduate.