<p>^ I agree. This isn’t going to help your case by comparing yourself with others. If his essays somehow struck a chord with admissions officers, they might treat his application more favorably. You should have realized that your chances were a slight reach even before the decisions, and his were a long shot. Just because he got in doesn’t mean that he stole a seat from you, or that you deserved it more than him. It’s not just UCSD that does this, all colleges have these cases. I bet for every 1 you find here for UCSD, there’s going to be a similar amount of these cases at an Ivy League. If a 4.0+, 1900 SAT, and shovel fulls of ECs were all that you needed to get into UCSD, why have admissions officers in the first place? Why not just let qualified applicants just sign up for classes right away >_>;;</p>