The most important factor to success is hard work. It applies to starting companies as much as it applies to getting into college. You can apply to Stanford and

The most important factor to success is hard work. It applies to starting companies as much as it applies to getting into college. You can apply to Stanford and MIT with perfect grades and a perfect SAT score, and they'll still reject you! There are more people with perfect SAT scores than there are admission spots. To trim down the pool, the college has to look outside of schoolwork. That's where the extracurriculars come into play. In most cases, whether you have something to write on that list is determined by how hard-working you are, not by how smart you are. And once they see that you spent your time doing something great outside of school, the admissions people will forgive your less-than-stellar grades. An added benefit to the school that comes from choosing hard-working people over bookworms is that once the students graduate, the hard working people will go on to build great businesses and ... wait for it ... donate to the school! Spend a few minutes putting yourself in the admission officer's spot and think about how you'd choose the next round of students. Personally, I recommend focusing on your perseverance first, social smarts second, and book smarts third. PS: I guarantee you that girl on the news getting fished out of the Indian Ocean right now will be attending Stanford when she turns 18.