I believe SA kids would have no issues getting into MIT Stanford Harvard
Let's look at a few of the people that were rejected by MIT from last year:
"1. ACT 35 (breakdown):
SAT II: Physics 800, Math 800
Unweighted GPA: 3.87
Rank (top 20%, school does not rank, top 3 national public STEM schools):
AP (15 or 14 APs, 9 5s and 4s, 5 more taking this year):
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: several dual enrollment classes with local university, all APs or gifted
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): President of a regional chapter of international non-profit, Founding officer of his TSA chapter in his school, active in many clubs, got $12000 for a start up with his 2 friends in a local Launch Pad competition, hackathons
Job/Work Experience: internship with NCR junior year, school award for his NCR project, internships with IT start ups
Volunteer/Community service: tutors math for a local non-profit, internationl/peace non-profit vounteer and leader,
Summer Activities: Samsung App Program, State Honors Summer Residential program in Math
2. SAT I (breakdown): 800 math,760 cr, 800 writing
ACT (breakdown): N/A
SAT II: 800 math II, 790 physics, 790 US History
Unweighted GPA: transcript only shows weighted (104.37 at time of submission I think) approximately 98 or 99 unweighted
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school doesn't rank but salutatotorian out of 300
AP (place score in parenthesis): World History, US History, Bio, English Language and Composition, Russian (all 5s)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, AP Calc BC, AP Macro, AP Chem
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalist, Ballroom Dance national title
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Ballroom Dance, Humans of (my school) (founder), Student Organization (Senior Vice-President), Junior Statesmen of America (Northeast State Director of Public Relations, Chapter Board), Jewish Club (President), Debate Team (VP), Business Club (VP), Math Team, Swimming Team
Job/Work Experience: Tutor
Volunteer/Community service: Every Sunday at the local Russian Jewish Community Center teaching kids elementary Hebrew
Summer Activities: Camp Rising Sun (international leadership program) 2012
Internship at KKWC law firm 2013
Internship at Borough Hall 2014
Congressional Campaign 2014
3. SAT I (breakdown): 800 c/ 800 m/ 790 w
ACT (breakdown):
SAT II: 800 math 2, 800 physics, 770 bio m, 750 US
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):
AP (place score in parenthesis): physics B, Calc BC, Stat, World History, US, Comp sci, Enviro Sci -5s; lang-4
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: multivariable, differential eq, ap gov, ap lit, ap comp gov, ap physc c, spanish
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): USAMTS Bronze, AIME x2, National AP scholar, US Pres scholar Candidate
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Piano (MTNA state winner, International Young Artist Finalist and 4th Place), Performed at the US State Department for an Arts Festival (woo hoo), math club (VP), comp sci - flash programming (Sec), intramural basketball (captain lol), quizbowl, swimming
Job/Work Experience: none
Volunteer/Community service: summer camp (120 hrs)
Summer Activities: college courses, volunteering
4. SAT I (breakdown): W:800 M:770 R: 800 (first and only attempt)
ACT (breakdown): 36 across the board (first and only attempt)
SAT II: Math II: 800 Chemistry: 770
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/81
AP (place score in parenthesis): 4 in AP Chem (without having taken an AP class -- few APs offered)
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: Honors, a few AP, heavy on science
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): NMF, US Dept of Education Presidential Scholar Candidate, Gold Medal National Latin Exam
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Scholar Bowl (co captain), Math team (captain), NETwork Against Malaria (co-president), student council, science club
Job/Work Experience: Mathnasium
Volunteer/Community service: Hospital volunteer, after school tutor
Summer Activities: work, scholar bowl camp, small amount of research
5. SAT I: 2400
GPA: 4.0/4.0 unweighted, 6.0/6.0 weighted
rank: 1/404
SAT II: Math II and Physics: 800
AP's: Lang and Comp, Microecon, Physics, and Calc AB: 5; Bio and Macroecon: 4
Senior classes: Engineering, AP Literature and Composition, AP Chemistry, World Cultures, AP Statistics, AP Latin IV, AP Calculus BC
Awards and acheivements: NJ GSET 2014, AP scholar whatever, National Merit Finalist, US Presidential Scholar Candidate, National Latin Exam silver/gold/gold, Math league high scorer 10th and 12th grade, most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse (school superlative), solved 102 Project Euler problems, creating a programming language (although that has not gotten far yet).
Clubs and activities: Math league (high scorer 10th and 12th grade, president 12th grade), Latin club, NHS, Robotics club (software lead and team won chairman's this year), Karate for 8 years (black belt), Origami for 10 years (designed over 100 models and taught at national convention), self taught programming in six languages"
That was from the first page of the MIT decision thread from last year. You can go through page after page through the last few years of MIT decision threads and find applicants of this quality being rejected again and again and again.