<p>Yeah this kid has a point and its definetely not fair to schools such as U Chicago who have really good applicant pools, yet still admits 40% of them.</p>
<p>But anyway, to answer the other question he is using SAT and rank. They are not necessarily equally weighted, but no school gives much more importance to one over the other, so its a decent/safe average. (Correct me if Im wrong now) The purpose of the sytem is to help determine whether the school is a safety/match/reach, not to predict whether they would be admitted or not. In other words, take for instance two kids applying to Brown:</p>
<p>Kid A: Valedictorian, SAT 1550
This kid has a good chance of making it, he/she can consider Brown a safe match. In other words he has a good probability of getting admitted, I would say there is an 60% chance of admission/40% chance of rejection (BASED ON THIS ALONE!!! Dont start again)</p>
<p>Kid B: Top 5%, SAT 1400
Brown might be a reach for him, these stats would lead me to predict that he/she has about a 20% chance of admisssion/80% chance of rejection (again this is unbeliveably arbitrarily. im just using these numbers as examples, not saying this is what it is)</p>
<p>So what does this tell us? Nothing we dont know, Kid A has a better chance than Kid B of getting admitted to Brown. Its possible that Kid B might make it and Kid A won't, but its not likely, and mo matter the outcome, Brown is still a match for Kid A but a reach for Kid B.</p>
<p>Get it? Good.</p>