<p>While I agree that “the six schools he applied to could probably fill their schools with very able, full pay students”, I don’t believe they would be equally “able”. The schools could choose someone less able for legitimate reasons, but they also must have reasons to reject someone more able. And I was curious about those reasons in OP’s case. Now, the bottom line - if I were sitting in the admissions committee, I would vote to accept this applicant if I didn’t see any clear red flag, so I think all six schools <em>should</em> accept him. That’s why the fact that none of them accepted him seems just <em>strange</em> to me. Fundamentally, we see an applicant such as OP very differently. I guess we just have to agree to disagree.</p>