<p>I doubt if the admissions people at Rice or Columbia or wherever see themselves as 'random.' Each school is trying to create a well-balanced class of people along their spectrum of applicants. That means they are balancing lots of variables that go beyond test scores. They all know that most of their applicants would do fine at the university. Outside of the top 2% of applicants, who would basically get in every year, most other acceptances are a crapshoot. I know plenty of people who went to Harvard because they didn't get into Duke, or who went to Hopkins Med School after getting rejected at second-tier schools, etc. There are just way too many solid applicants for a limited number of spots. Archon is an excellent applicant who, if he applied to Rice 10 times, would probably get accepted a bunch of times. But he, like most everybody else, isn't a lock. And wouldn't everyone agree that Rice's admissions people would be trying to fill their class with the best possible people--what kind of games would they be playing if they took people who they honestly thought were worse students??? Maybe they'd reject someone who they KNEW was going to go to MIT or Caltech and who was just trying to wrack up acceptances (my fancy high school would occasionally warn off colleges about such aplicants), but they wouldn't think this of anyone outside of a really special applicant.</p>