> Some admits are duds, and some are hits. Elite schools in the US know and admit this, too. They are constantly trying to figure out how to minimize the duds.

> Some admits are duds, and some are hits. Elite schools in the US know and admit this, too. They are constantly trying to figure out how to minimize the duds. > I would assume they claim this because they are being sued by Asians about bias This claim is made so often, yet it is so fantastically short-sighted. It boggles my minds that people think that great grades and great standardized test scores are the best predictors for being a strong contributor in an elite academic setting (yes, it's great for predicting more good grades, but that's a shallow definition of success in an elite school setting -- the resources available can be and are used so much more productively). Things like charisma (incl. leadership), curiosity, drive, and creativity make a huge difference, and those things are fantastically difficult to quantify in a reliable way that can scale. Things like financial capital and social capital are real things that keep a school healthy and strong over time. If a person from a given group feels like they were discriminated against, I would ask them to try to answer better the question of what do they think that they are giving to the school. Directly or indirectly, almost all admits to an elite school have a very solid answer to that question.