<p>stravinsky-</p>
<p>I agree with you that it is unfortunate that much of the admissions process has been reduced to the scores an applicant has achieved throughout her/his life. However, as a purported philosophy savant i really think you should have understood this, sstory was not making a normative claim about the admissions process, rather s/he was being pragmatic and looking at your chances through the established standards (which you and I may detest). </p>
<p>“If they value something as trivial and meaningless as grades over a mind, then they can keep their precious pseudo-intellectual elitism.”</p>
<p>That’s all well and good, but how do you think they would go about measuring the strength of ones mind? Stanford, like most other top universities, gets thousands of applications every year, do you think they have enough time to administer an IQ test or put you through psychoanalysis to measure the strength of your mind? Grades, sat’s and other tangible measures are a big part of the admissions process, and while you may not like it, its about the only realistic method they have to evaluate an applicant. You can’t expect to get into stamford with a 3.5 just because you make endless claims about being an “intellectual”.</p>