Nah, as a parent of a high achieving daughter who had higher GPA/ACT scores than this teen, I can tell you the issue is that a high percentage of students who a

Nah, as a parent of a high achieving daughter who had higher GPA/ACT scores than this teen, I can tell you the issue is that a high percentage of students who apply to places like Stanford and MIT also have perfect scores. A 4.0 GPA 34 ACT doesn't mean much anymore. My daughter was waitlisted or rejected by every Ivy+ engineering dept she applied to. (Granted she might have gotten in had she applied for general admission; applying directly to Engineering is doubly-hard. She ultimately accepted a full scholarship at a good "second tier" engineering school and graduated debt free, which is maybe better.) There's just so much competition these days, especially from foreign students who have spent most of their lives perfecting test taking and spend considerable money on tutoring for their applications/essays as well.