<p>[qupte] As long as you have a type A personality, you will fit in
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You just contradicted yourself. I have a B type personality, totally laid back S1 he would NOT have liked a college with an abundance of A type personalities and he would have sensed that collective stress immediately.</p>
<p>I also tend to agree with Mathmom that it probably isn’t very difficult to spot a half hearted application or a Hail Mary application or a made-over essay. I have to believe that kids that really want to attend a particular school put time and effort into the application. It can’t be that different than job applicants. There are the ones that have a formula cover letter…insert job name here and a bullet list of qualifications and others where the applicant clearly took time and effort and quickly connected themselves and their qualifications to the job.</p>
<p>Now you might bring one of those formula letter people in because their resume is outstanding but it’s not a “gimme” and you might only give the resume a cursory glance.</p>
<p>No, I don’t think the process is arbitrary at all. It might “feel” arbitrary to the student but there are a multitude of little decisions that lead up to the final decision.</p>