Concur with posters discussing the fact that elite schools can easily fill their classes many times with kids having top scores and grades, even with discrepancies in HS quality and grading systems. The increased competitiveness fueled partially by greater numbers of HS grads going to college and the common app have forced elite schools (and others) to take a “holistic” approach where they select AMONG the top academic performers to find other qualities that stand out and make an applicant a strong candidate for that school’s campus.
As an alumni interviewer for an elite school, they ask us to try and ferret out the following attributes: Creativity, Responsibility, Leadership, Initiative, Impact, Engagement, Talent and Maturity. I have to believe these criteria are also what the AOs at this particular U are using in committee as well to separate the offers of admission from the highly-qualified chum. I’m sure that every elite U has its own set of similar, but different, characteristics/values to separate applicants beyond the scores.