I’m sure not all the applications even get to a reader. I have to believe that no matter how much lip service is given to holistic review, there is a minimum level of GPA and standardized test scores necessary to make it to a reader.
I also agree that grit isn’t worth ethic either. To me it’s the ability to work your tail off, get a C or worse on a big exam or project, but emotionally dust yourself back off, and figure out what you need to do to improve without making excuses.
I’m on a parent FB group for my daughter’s graduating class. What Mitch Daniels is talking about with parents is alive and well. Can’t tell you the number of posts following each round of exams about how unfair profs are being, that the exams are too hard, too fast paced, too hard to understand, too this, too that. There were even parents complaining of lack of academic supports and there are recitations, TA office hours, Prof office hours, subject specific help rooms, group and one on on tutoring (in each and every dorm), exam review sessions, etc… An abundance of academic supports but obviously students need to make use of them. IMO, many parents are the enemy of the development of grit.