There are >10X more applicants than spots available (at least for CMU SCS). I would guess that at least 8 out of 10 of the total applicant pool is “highly qualified” where highly qualified means test scores in the top 1%, nearly 4.0 unweighted GPA, >>4.0 weighted, large number of AP classes, etc. etc.
So how you pick the 1 out of the 8 or so that you can accept out of the highly qualified bucket?
The testing services will tell you that a small difference in score is statistically irrelevant. Something like +/-40 SAT points or +/-1pt on ACT doesn’t tell you very much when comparing student A and student B. And how do you compare the student that superscored to a small advantage after 6+ attempts vs one that took the test once or twice.
GPAs vary wildly between schools, particularly weighted GPAs that are all over the map.
So you can’t simply say that because student B had a 20pt lower SAT and a .03 pt lower weighted GPA than student A that student A is more qualified.
A lot of the discussion seems to be premised on the assumption that more qualified students were being passed over for political correctness and less qualified students were being selected. I don’t see that unqualified students are being selected. I think the adcoms have a very difficult task of picking between students with effectively equivalent quantatitive metrics.
Are they passing over qualified candidates, yes, probably 7 or 8 qualified applicants for each one that got accepted. Are they deliberately taking less qualified or unqualified applicants, no… I believe they know more about what it takes to be successful in their program since they have doing this years than most of the know-it-all parents who have at most 2 or 3 go-rounds with the process and tend to be biased heavily (iwe have the MOST competitive high school, etc).
Is it unfair, sure, they are having to pick one of 8 so it going to seem unfair to 7 people. It’s not a 100% based on quantitative metrics. Otherwise kids could just skip all the essays, etc and just retake the SAT over and over until they get that superscored 1580 and then be done with the whole process.
Each school has to pick the class that they believe will best achieve their mission and goals. I would suggest you read the GaTech admissions director’s blog. He talks a lot about how they have a mission and goals for their school/class and how they endeavor to architect an incoming class that meets their institutional goals. There were a couple of very good entries back in November on this topic.