<p>Lawcha - most colleges look at this differently. They are looking to create diversity in many ways. As an admissions person from Stanford said last year, they are not looking to select balanced people, but to select a balanced class. That is, they want a mix of people with different strengths, passions, skills and outlooks. </p>
<p>One of the aspects of diversity that most colleges practice is high school diversity - they do not want an incoming class that represents only the highest performance high schools. Many will limit the number the select from each high school, even if the rejected applicant is otherwise stronger than the people the pick from a different school. </p>
<p>The reality for most colleges, particularly the most sought after and selective ones, is that they have far more people who are 'good enough' and would do well than they have spaces in the class. Thus, the pick and choose to take the subset that is most valuable to them. If they need a tuba player to fill out a band spot, they might take the applicant over another with higher academic stats. In general, outside of those special people they are looking for, including athletes, they first establish some kind of cutoff of academic stats. However, they use a mix of class rank, standard test scores, GPA and their knowledge of the context of each high school to assess whether an applicant hits that minimum. if not, rejection. For those that are 'good enough', they then use the other diversity factors to decide how to build their incoming class that most reflects the mix they want. Having someone who is 'interesting' because they are totally into some EC adds to the quality of life for all students who get to interact with others in this broad class. </p>
<p>We are not even talking here of other kinds of diversity or social engineering, such as righting the wrongs of society by selecting less advantaged students over more privileged ones who have higher stats or even higher academic potential whatever that means. Throw in adjusting mix by ethnicity and sex as many schools appear to practice, and you get the reality today. You may not like it, but that is how colleges admit students today.</p>