Originally Posted by Bostonian
I understand the reasoning of you and others -- challenge is important -- but if your child is "privileged" -- white or Asian with parents having advanced degrees -- the most selective schools expect nearly straight A's as a baseline and want to see an exceptional extracurricular achievement on top. Look at the stats for Brown http://www.brown.edu/admission/undergraduate/about/admission-facts .

When you say Brown, I think "safety school for people who weren't bright enough to get into Harvard."