No, not random. It was conceived of, in the 1920s, as a way of limiting the number of Jews admitted, who were outscoring WASPs on the admissions tests for Ivies (sound familiar?) More recently, it has been used to justify the admission of certain groups of students with lower standardized test scores and lower GPAs over certain other students, with higher academic stats. Overall, it justifies the admission of students with lower stats over those with higher stats, so that the school can assemble a class that reflects the school’s desired class composition.
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