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At the presentation I attended for Stanford, the young Admission Officer made it crystal clear (he repeated it three times) that they looked for grades, class rank, and course load.
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<p>That may be their line, but it is absolutely not who they have accepted from our school in the last two years. Legacy status, URM status and political connections trumps grades. While I have no objection to these factors being considered it aggravates me that Stanford rejected our Intel winners, and all of the top half of the students who applied. (Judging from grades and SAT scores.)</p>