<p>-Isn’t- the way to achieve the “highest rate of satisfaction” just to do a plain, simple, “put whoever is next in line is his/her top, available choice”? Anything more than that just strikes me as having to double-guess how “satisfied” each student is with every “choice” he/she could get; i.e. someone who would hate being in anything less than his/her first choice vs. someone who would basically be content in any of his/her top four choices becomes a factor.</p>
<p>Though I suppose if they’re going to be so wordy so as to describe what they do as an “algorithm,” then perhaps there is something more complicated than a natural lottery behind the scenes.</p>