I got in to Penn with a 2.7 GPA (though improving steadily throughout high school), & parents who couldn't afford to make donations. The weird smart kid who didn't do homework because they were too busy writing a novel was a definite character in the Ivies in my era. Not any more
What the Ivies have tended towards for generations now are "super conformers" -- straight As and spent all their time in adult extra-curriculars. People who spent all their time doing what authority wants.
But in the past, they did seek out many of the very smartest, to.