<p>Anirudha1993-</p>
<p>Its hard to say exactly what they want- obviously they expect people to have competitive grades and test scores but so many applicants have those- maybe they need a left handed tuba player, maybe they don’t like my application because they just accepted someone else who sounds very similar to me. There are just not enough spots at competitive colleges and people who can do the work and are completely qualified are turned away. There is a random unpredictable element in play- as difficult as it is, its not fair to yourself to view their decisions as a judgement about your worth as an individual.</p>
<p>It’s also worth remembering that when you look at the really accomplished people (like Nobel laureates) a whole lot of them went to less than spectacular colleges- its really what you do with the education more than Hamilton or Harvard experience per se.</p>