<p>
I mentioned analyzing the posted Stanford RD decisions earlier. About half of the rejected posters were valedictorians with a 4.0 UW. The rejected posters had a much higher median class rank that the accepted students, a higher median GPA, a higher median course rigor + number of AP classes, and a higher median SAT score. I’d expect many of this group to be the ones who thought they had followed all the rules and had an excellent chance of being accepted. Instead the rejections appeared to more related to not having something unique that really made them stand out from the thousands of other valedictorian applications like impressive awards or ECs, or overcoming a unique disadvantage. The variable that had the highest correlation with acceptance was awards/ECs that were impressive on a state/national level rather than class rank, going to a top high school, or similar.</p>