She didn't. AOC went to Boston University, which is NOT ivy. It's ranked #37 in US News.
She didn't go to Boston College, which IS ivy. It's ranked #32.
She won 2nd in Microbiology in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in high school at Yorktown High School. (According to state test scores, 99% of students are at least proficient in math and 98% in reading.) No doubt this got her into a decent college. She did research in longevity at Mt. Sinai Hospital.
The secret to winning the ISEF is working with an expert in a hospital or university for the science part. For the political part of ISEF, it also doesn't hurt to be a woman. Nor does it hurt if you have an Hispanic sounding name. And probably being born in the Bronx (and later moved to Westchester) doesn't hurt.
With all that, she is a sure thing to have people throw all kinds of goodies her way to prove that the 'underdog' can win if she tries. She learned her politics early, but along the way, no one taught her common sense.
Kind of like obama.
Athletically, Ivy is Harvard-Yale-Princeton-Cornell-Columbia-Princeton-Brown-Penn. Back in the 1970’s or 1980’s, Army and Navy applied and were turned down.
Maybe BC belongs to a research consortium with the Ivies?