A “fuzzy” demarcation between admit and reject can also occur if the school has varying levels of selectivity by major, even if the admission process is not holistic and does not include any subjectively graded criteria at the admission office (e.g. SJSU: http://info.sjsu.edu/static/admission/impaction.html ).
@ucbalumnus ,the eligibility index used you mentioned only applies to CSUs. I do applaud them for making their criteria transparent.
The US News Rankings use old data, BTW. The latest rankings are based on 2014 data.
merc81, the point is that the senior made sure that their class-mates understood that contributing even a dollar post graduation would have an impact on their school’s ranking henceforth. They publicized a way to manipulate their school’s rank. Most schools don’t do anything quite that blatant with their seniors (and it was the seniors, not the admin, although I’m sure the admin was quite happy to let it happen. They all want more donors.)