<p>^keep in mind a lot of the 3.9+ers may be in the same categories</p>
<p>Among Parchment members with a 3.9+ GPA and 2200-2300 SAT, the admit rate for non-URMs applicants to Princeton with a 3.9+ UW was 1.3x the admit rate for applicants with the same SAT and a 3.75-3.85… … almost the same ratio that occurs in the stats published by Princeton. The Parchment results suggest that non-URM applicants with a ~3.8 GPA and SAT in this range had a bit lower chances than 4.0, but not tremendously lower… certainly nothing to suggest the vast majority of admits in one category are hooks, but not the other.</p>
<p>One might instead wonder why perfect 4.0 UW GPA applicants only have a single digit admit rate. Whatever combination of unique characteristics the few 4.0 applicants who were admitted had (including the categories you listed – athlete, URM, musician, …) might also have be enough to get them admitted, had their GPA been 3.8 instead of 4.0.</p>