<p>Menlo- unless you know each students’ complete stats and read their essays or sat in the adcom meeting, you can’t know how the admissions decisions were made. Many, many times at many elite schools a lower ranked student from the same high school is admitted while the higher ranked is rejected. There are many factors involved in the admissions decisions from geographic diversity to filling a new program to needing an oboe player. The college looks at its admitted class as a whole and does not rank those applying from each high school. The competition is not the kid sitting next to you in class, it is the enitre application pool.</p>