> Hate to break it to you mate but none of them are getting in.

If they're not getting in, they're applying to the wrong places. Even now, I know plenty of high school kids getting into multiple universities with a very average schedule and not particularly good grades.

Not everyone has to go to a top 10, or even a top 50 school.

I want to a very average state school (not even in the top 100) for undergrad, and a top 5 school for grad school. For undergrads, the primary benefit of the top grad school was networking. The differences in curriculum were minor, and the low ranked school taught much better. Most employers really don't care that much about the ranking of the university.

If anyone is working crazy hard and only targeting the top universities, the injury is self inflicted.