<p>Yes, I always imagined that there would be the big stack at the center of the table, and then a debate between the different committee members, accepting or rejecting each applicant. But now I realize that this is both unrealistic and impractical. The selection process must be very less dramatic–one school explained that only a few applications are every reviewed by the dean him/herself. All others pass through regional counselors. It just seems unfortunate that if it is only one or two people seeing the app, they could be in a bad mood that day, feel differently towards your application that day, etc. Very subjective…</p>