Yes, that is the idea.
Ayep. My friend was basically a shoo-in at MIT but he didn't mail his damned application on time and as a result he's had all sorts of misadventures, and not the fun kind either, most of which at least partially resulted from the fact that where he ended up was nowhere near as interesting as MIT would have been to him.
Also caused a huge rift between my friend and my father to this day because of all of the brouhaha to ensure that he got his ducks in a row.
Kind of a bit late in the year to be just starting now though.