<p>I was lookiung at the admissions statistics from my high school to all the colleges, and I have a question that came up when I was looking at it. Why is it that (just as an example here) this one guy with a 3.84 GPA (UW) and an 800 on the math and 690 on the verbal was waitlisted, but this other guy with a 3.6 GPA and 800 on the math and 690 on the verbal got accepted? This is just one example, but there are so many (this guy with a 3.3 GPA got into CIT, etc.)? So, why did those guys get accepted while the guys with better grades get rejected? How do these admissions work? What do they look for if not grades?</p>
<p>you just need to read more posts to understand that it is the whole package and not just one or two stats that make the application.</p>
<p>Students can have an edge in admission decisions for many different reasons (URM, legacy, athlete, etc)</p>
<p>many schools also factor in much more that GPA and test scores -- these include teacher recommendations, SAT II scores, rigor of coursework, extracurricular activities, personal essays and demonstrated interest.</p>
<p>My sons' highschool does a more comprehensive report regarding the admissions stats for the past 5 classes. In addition to the gpa and SAT scores, there are codes for recruited athlete, urm, legacy, 1st gen to college, development, hardship, celebrity etc.
There are other things that can heavily impact decisions as well. Hsmornstef has mentioned some of them. There are also kids who have invented something phenomonal, have a genius understanding of a subject (math, in one case I do know), have written a book, or come up with some other achievement that transcends their academic stats.</p>