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<p>In fact, I would expect that most find this unpleasant.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it works this way everywhere, but at least at MIT, many applicants would end up with one particular adcom who took a liking to their app, who rooted for them, and was their advocate in committee discussions, the one trying to persuade the rest of the committee that this particular kid was the right call. In my experience talking to the adcoms, they were especially happy about those of “their” applicants who got in…and dejected about those of “their” applicants who got turned down.</p>
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<p>Yes, yes, yes. People can really mess their “friends” up by insinuating or stating outright that they didn’t deserve to get in somewhere, that they only got in because of [whatever].</p>