I was in your shoes about a decade ago, but without the perfect SAT scores (though still top notch). While applying to colleges, I got an interesting piece of a

I was in your shoes about a decade ago, but without the perfect SAT scores (though still top notch). While applying to colleges, I got an interesting piece of advice from friends I met during math and science competitions (these are all people who are in the top 1% of US high school students in these fields). They said to pick one of the schools in my list of top choices and apply directly to their engineering (or equivalent) school. Then fill in the major field with something that fits my credentials perfectly even if I'm still unsure what to pursue. Their reasoning goes that the engineering sections of Ivys often don't attract the very best candidates (Ivy League engineering << MIT, CMU, etc.) in these fields. So by applying in this manner, you end up competing against an "easier" pool of applicants. The major bit adds icing to your application as it makes you appear to be a focused student and allows the school to fulfill career diversity goals. Of course, all of this is just speculation but for the Ivys that rank their engineering schools separately, it is pretty clear that it would be much easier to get into those schools. So I took this advice and that one school ended up being the only school that didn't reject/waitlist me (none of my waitlists even panned out). Once you get in, just bust your ass freshman year and "transfer" into the general school. Or if you decide to do engineering anyway, change majors (what I ended up doing). This is just one anecdote and admissions may very well be fair. However, I don't think it is naive for anyone to think otherwise because the perception is shared by many educated people.