> If you’ve got 300 applicants and 15 of them are Ivy League, you throw away the other 285 You'd be better off throwing away 285 at random. At least then you'r

> If you’ve got 300 applicants and 15 of them are Ivy League, you throw away the other 285 You'd be better off throwing away 285 at random. At least then you're not specifically selecting for the people who you are going to have the most competition for. On your first pass, spend 30 seconds scanning each one and throw away any that just feel off. This is probably at least 50%, possibly a lot more. This is 2.5 hours. On the 2nd pass, spend 2 minutes more thoroughly reading them, and pick your top 10 to 20. This is about an hour if you already threw away half. In 3.5 hours you can get a much better pool of favorites than by just throwing away those from non top-tier schools.