Why do students with perfect grades and AP scores still get rejected from top universities? At BetterMind Labs, we see this every year. Bay Area students with near-flawless transcripts assume academics alone will carry them through admissions. Many are surprised when they don’t. To admissions committees, strong grades are no longer a signal of distinction. They’re the baseline. What actually stands out is whether a student has applied advanced skills to real, unscripted probl