<p>Good post, but I sort of disagree with you on one thing. There ARE factors beyond an applicant’s merit that influence, often substantially, whether or not they get in. I agree with you that these shouldn’t be grounds for moaning, and no one should BLAME their deferral/rejection on being unhooked. But still, it is somewhat intellectually dishonest to pretend that the myriad factors that make an applicant successful are reducible to a simplistic evaluation of having “merit” or “not enough merit”</p>