<p>My experience has led me to conclude that the process is largely arbitrary and capricious. “Can’t let in just kids with high scores and high grades, so… let’s reject this one because we’ve already got enough white males from x state.” “Hey, we haven’t had any latinos from Idaho, so let’s let this kid in with a much lower score.” “Oh, this kid was the president of his school’s greens for gays society - Don’t know what that is, but it sounds kinda cool.”
The admissions people are basically casting agents.</p>