<p>quote]I may very well have made a poor choice in words. Though… thinking on it, I’m not sure I meant competitive so much. Perhaps just using subjective data it would be easier to see. I wondered whether a student who had the exact median test score/GPA/class rank as the freshman profile at a given school really has a 9% shot at school XX and 12% at YY, etc. Or whether a notable percentage of denied applicants don’t fit the profile of the students entering the school.
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<p>There is a difference between qualitative and quantitative data. I can compare SAT scores, they are numbers. But it is not that simple. Even within SAT scores is two students with 750, 750,750 the same as one who has 800, 800, 650. What if the 650 is writing and the student is one whose first language is not English?</p>
<p>The second issue is comparing EC’s, recommendations. Does a student who won a top math prize be considered better than a student who goes to a school in a poor neighborhood who started a program to tutor classmates?</p>
<p>So there is a subjective factor. You may think one class mate is unqualified, but he or she may be a first generation student and hence gets in as the ad comm is very impressed by the essay and the circumstances.</p>
<p>If you are unhooked, as pointed by Pizzagirl and others, you are competitive if you are in the upper half of the range. Right wrong, that is what it is.</p>