<p>" how many legacies, recruited athletes, URMs, targeted "poverty" candidates......Once you're finished with all of those, just how many slots are really available for the kids who "only" demonstrate intellectual curiosity or will contribute to campus life in other ways. "</p>
<p>These categories are not mutually exclusive. A student is not being "targeted" for poverty. Among the intellectually curious and/or intellectually Extreme, extremities of economics may improve chances for admission against others in that group with better SES status, unless those others are also members of the aforementioned hooked categories. And as someone else mentioned elsewhere on CC, legacies mean more for some colleges than others. (More for LAC's than some large U's, etc.) Donor status could be more important.</p>