<p>The main problem is that most of us here agree, or at least I would hope so, that academic ability should be the primary factor used to decide admission. While EC’s are certainly nice, as are interviews, essays, volunteering, etc. I think the real heart of an admissions decision has to do with their academic promise. The only real estimators we have of that are GPA, class rank, and ACT/SAT. GPA varies so widely from school to school that it cannot really take on much more weight than it currently has without an equally large focus on test scores to put them in perspective. I’ll give you that class rank seems an OK indicator, but it seems like one can’t go a day in CC without reading about another kid whose school’s ranking system screws him for taking challenging courses. ACT and SAT are the only reliable measure we have for comparing two students from different schools, and doing so fairly.</p>