[huehehue]

Probably because these colleges have 5,000 Maries to choose from. The article says Marie is perfect on paper and "checks all the boxes", but that's honestly not very inspiring and I'd guess that applicants/parents are optimizing for the wrong things.

> “She’s happy but often says, ‘Mom, I just wish I hadn’t studied. I would have gotten into the exact same schools.’” And Marie is probably right. Admissions scarcity is concentrated at the top of the rankings list; there are hundreds of four-year colleges that readily admit B and C students.

My experience is that they actually would have gotten into more / better schools