Are college admissions reaching a point of extreme randomness?

[Zinhead]

Note that when recommendations are used, a variable that is mostly out of the applicant’s control (and therefore may seem random to the applicant) is the quality of recommendation writing by the recommenders. Several teachers may be equally impressed with you, but could write recommendations of very different quality from a college admissions standpoint.

When a very qualified applicant has been denied from a variety of schools, poor LOR’s and/or personal essays are the most likely culprits. Despite what some people on this thread have said, the OP was placed in the “Asian” bucket, and that is most competitive application bucket for these schools.