People who only apply to top schools?

[ucbalumnus]

@UWfromCA

Also, adding to the point made earlier by ucbalumnus, “holistic” admissions (and different admissions standards for instate, OOS and international applicants) can produce surprises for students who “on paper” might consider a school like UIUC or Washington (with its 26-31 ACT and 3.78/4.0 average GPA (2015)) a “safety.”

These two schools are examples of schools where some students looking for popular majors like CS may see the school as a safety or low match based on overall stats, but then be surprised that the CS major is much more difficult to get into (they may get admitted to the school but not the CS major).