100% agreed. As a matter of fact, just about all schools on the top USNWR rankings are a crap shoot (http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges

100% agreed. As a matter of fact, just about all schools on the top USNWR rankings are a crap shoot (http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/int+college_rankings_lists/spp+25 http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/...) You can get in one and not get in 20, get in 20 and not get in the one you really wanted to get into. I go to one of those schools and I personally know people that got into Berkeley and wanted to go to UCLA or got into Caltech when they wanted to go to Stanford, or didn't get into the state schools and got into Stanford. A friend of mine wanted to go to MIT for undergrad, but instead got into Cornell (and later went to MIT for grad school.) The undergraduate admission process at elite schools really makes zero sense. All (most?) elite schools use a "holistic" method of evaluating applications. Which is basically a magical black box that spits out yes's and no's.