but how do they continue to get through four years and graduate?  An example: a school has 100k applications for 1k seats.  Assume all those are already good enough to keep up.  How does it select which 1 in 100 gets a place?  It could cream off the top if it wanted, which is partly how these schools get these reputations.  Otherwise this is what all the extra stuff on the application is supposed to be for.  Diversity and extra-curricular stuff.  Oh plus bribes now too.