@Faulkner1897 The odd thing is that D was accepted for Summer term, but she didn’t have much in terms of STEM-focused ECs. She did drama and choir for all 4 years of HS plus NHS (Officer Senior Year) and NASA (Senior year only - maybe 5hrs per week max, so not a huge committment). Her stats were in range for GT, but lower than many students that were denied (1410 SAT, 7 APs, 4.0 UW GPA).
At some point, I think a school has to look at how well-rounded their student body is. Accepting 8,000 students who are Science Olympiad and/or Robotics club participants would not be beneficial to the aggregate student body, even though every one of the 8,000 students would likely have the passion, intelligence, and drive to be successful.