This is probably anecdotal, but I went to a high school that is ranked in the top 10 in the US by several institutions (US News, NewsWeek, Washington Post).

I was a lazy student, I won't deny it, but I took a lot of APs and dual enrollments from the college in the city. 11 of my classes were APs, 6 were dual enrollments, and 15 were just plain honors. My final weighted GPA was a 4.53/5.02, or a 3.61/4.00. As you can see, I was an A average student. My writing was solid as my school emphasized written and verbal expression of everything. I had an SAT of 2360 and an ACT of 35, without studying I might add.

I applied to the college in my city (in-state), #12 engineering school (in-state), #24 overall school (in-state), UCLA, Berkeley, Georgia Tech, UMichigan, and CalTech. I was straight up rejected by CalTech, which was no surprise, and Michigan. One of my best friends goes to Michigan and he told me how dumb many of the engineering students there are and that he's still surprised how I didn't get in. I was also rejected by the #25 state school after being waitlisted, which was also surprising due to the fact that 1/3 of my graduating class was accepted.

I got into the local college and #12 engineering school without a problem. Was waitlisted by UCLA, Berkeley, and Georgia Tech, but then admitted. My credentials were way better than their base requirements, but I still got waitlisted. I've been aware for quite a while that affirmative action doesn't help Asians or Indians, but I didn't think I'd be brute-force waitlisted or rejected by some schools when my merits were probably better than the average applicant due to my race.