<p>After looking at the admissions results it seems there are interesting combinations that in someways don't make sense. People get into and regected from top schools, others get waitlisted at virtually all schools, some get into top schools waitlisted at many others, others get rejected and waitlisted, and so forth. </p>
<p>If a person gets into 4 top schools, why would they not get waitlisted at say the other 3 as opposed to rejected? Similarly if they were waitlisted at 6 good schools, why would they not get into at least one, they were close enought to get rejected outright? Anyone got any thoughts.</p>
<p>There are a lot of variables that factor in to the decision. Colleges don't look at applicants all the same way. For example, let's say the orchestra at Hoolala College needs a good bassoonist. There aren't very many bassoonists who apply to the college, and so the orchestra is kind of desperate. Then the admissions officers at Hoolala are more willing to accept the student who plays the bassoon, even if the grades might not be as stellar. I think waitlisting people also has something to do with U.S. News Report rankings as well. Different colleges also look for different types of students--for example, Grinnell, which is a great liberal arts college, needs more diversity, so people of color who apply to Grinnell have less competition, and Grinnell needs to accept more people of color. A place that's really diverse already has a very diverse student body, and so being a person of color matters less in the admissions decision. So there are a lot of factors that go into the decisions.</p>