First, high school starts with 14 year olds, not 10.

Second, people don't suddenly learn how to write a competent essay at the last minute. Writing a good one is a combination of many skills learned over many years.

BTW, I did not take any college prep courses prior to Caltech, and found myself way behind the other freshman who did. I found out many years later that the admissions committee had taken a chance on me, and they were very nearly wrong. I came that close to flunking out.

If public schools dump their gifted tracks, inequality will only increase as the top schools will wind up drawing only from private schools.

Admission essays are a literary genre of their own, like the weird language used by some state bureaucracies. Knowing how to write these essays is a splinter skill.

Anyway, so you should not have been admitted but you succeeded anyway without being a gifted kid? It seems like you have proved my point.

8th graders are typically 12-13 years old, not 10 - 10 year olds are typically in the 6th and 7th grade.