Expert: Susie Watts - 12/8/2007

Question
I was wondering, due to the very competitive nature of college admissions these years, as to the often "random" decisions made by highly selective universities.  
For example, some person may be reject by every Ivy league school he applied to but is accepted to Stanford and MIT.  
Obviously, this means the person has the credentials to get into a high tier school.

So besides reasons for having too many new undergrads (and assuming the students are all pretty strong), what are reasons for these universities to reject successful students?

Thanks

Answer
Often times students are rejected because other students bring something to a school that interests the admissions committee.  Some students may be athletes, musicians, artists or just have talents or qualities that a college feels will bring something unique to their freshman class.