“Few colleges accept students on the potential factor, especially Ivy League schools with a name to preserve.”
While this was may not have been as completely untrue in his time period, it is no longer true at all. Heavily left “Brag Sheets” (internships with Dem State pols, House building with JC, etc.) can get average students into top schools. Potential goes a long way in lefty schools...especially with race preferences unspoken.
Today, yes, but when Obama was going to school? Not as much. Today there are a lot of ways to game the system.