re: You be the admissions director

quote:

---

you take the 36 over the black, the poor, the girl, the gay, the rural white guy, or anyone else with a 30 ...

---

And that's what overwhelmingly happens.

The pure academic superstars with the impeccable extracurriculars and references are the automatic admits.

People that need hooks (legacy, super rich, poor, AA, first in family to college, athletes) to bolster their applications are bumping similar "could go either way" candidates.

Relatively few members of each class, even at the elite universities, are slam dunk, flawless candidates. Those that are almost always get in. I say "almost" because some of them will sometimes play the yield game in order to appeal to US News and World Report and deny a candidate that they are pretty sure would not go there anyway.