One thing I've noticed in a lot of schools abroad, including US, is that one can apply for as many schools as you please. Where I live, you can only apply for 5

One thing I've noticed in a lot of schools abroad, including US, is that one can apply for as many schools as you please. Where I live, you can only apply for 5 schools / programs, and that's it. I feel that with unlimited applications, you heavily inflate the rejection rate - anyone can apply to Harvard just for the sake of it, even though it's completely unrealistic. For schools, it's a great PR tool - as rejection rate is directly tied to the elite and prestige of a school; But only in context, of course. Many cashier jobs get something like 10 times more applicants pr position than the most prestigious college spots or professional jobs, but you rarely hear anything about that. In fact, when I studied at a top university, they were conducting a internal study on whether good math grades from HS worked as a good predictor of success in college - and there turned out to be a relationship. Later on, one proposal was to put more weight on specific grades like that, and then be more lax on overall GPA - but this was quickly shot down because the "perceived prestige" of said school could get hurt, if employers learned that future students with lower overall GPA would get admitted, even though they had stellar grades in the classes that mattered most. But with that said, I can understand why prestigious companies want to hire people from top schools and with top grades: It signals that the students are willing to do anything for success, and are willing to work around the clock to achieve something. After all, many have been doing this since they were teenagers. If you look at consulting, banking, law, etc. junior programs are basically set up so that the workers will forego their private lives, and work 100 hour weeks if needed. And they will do that, if you also entice them with a nice bonus and attractive exit prospects. Almost every investment banking analyst I've ever known, went into the analyst program because of exit options (good business school, hedge funds and private equity firms, etc.) .