<p>“I bet countless parents and students complain every year to the admissions dean that the son or daughter with perfect scores did not get in.”</p>
<p>You bet right.</p>
<p>I know someone who perfected the SAT in her 3rd try and expected to get into Stanford. No, got a rejection letter, however she did get into UCB. Colleges would be pretty boring if all they took was a 4.7 GPA and a 2400 score. Personally I think once you hit close to 2300, focus on doing something to set you apart instead of trying for the elusive 2400.</p>
<p>I’d like to clarify one thing: there is no college that rejects an applicant because he or she has perfect grades and scores. Perfect grades and scores are a plus at every college…but it may not be enough at some colleges for some applicants. That’s what the admissions people are saying.</p>
<p>On second thought, I suppose it’s possible that a school that is very concerned with yield might reject (or waitlist) a candidate who appears “too qualified” to be likely to matriculate. I don’t believe this is likely to happen at the most selective schools, though, and even at schools where it might happen, I would think that there might also have to be a lack of expressed interest in the school.</p>
<p>What hasn’t been mentioned in this thread is that the most selective colleges, once they’ve weeded out the applicants they prefer not to admit, are left with several times the number of attractive applicants than would fit in their freshman class. They would be perfectly happy to have any of 'em, but they have to choose. The fact that someone is rejected doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t have what it takes to get it–just in the crunch someone else had just a tiny bit more!</p>
<p>One other point…the “Perfect kid” with the 2400 and 4.0 and the concurrent sense of entitlement, can be done in by the GC’s letter and teachers’ LORs.</p>
<p>A letter that says "got an A in my class and was a hard worker doesn’t do anything positive for the applicant.</p>
<p>And then there are the letters that damm with faint praise, so to speak. Adcoms read that message loud and clear. </p>
<p>And, of course, there are those actually honest letters about Perfect Peter. </p>
<p>Some, although obviously not any where near all, of the “perfect” applicants might fail to score well on the “plays well with others” scale and thus not be seen as a positive addition to the campus community.</p>