<p>These are all very good posts. </p>
<p>I just want to say again that very qualified candidates may get rejected simply because they can’t take every highly talented applicant due to the numbers. The applicant may do NOTHING wrong and may have what it takes to be admitted, but still not be accepted. This is true in competitive MT programs just like at Ivy League schools. The Ivies reject kids with perfect SAT scores, GPAs and the like and will readily state that they could have filled their class two times with just as qualified a class as they did admit. I would not analyze why a highly talented candidate did not get admitted to X school but got into Y school. The sheer low acceptance rate means that it is statistically not likely that even the top candidates will be admitted to all schools.</p>