[XOMichelle]

OK, I missed UHDEEGEE's post... so I gather I get the 10% rule.

I used to work at the admissions office at my private college and I know they looked at the difficulty of the school where the kids went. They had a list, and I'm pretty sure they took kids from those HS's annually (or something to that extent). Obviously, they didn't know ALL of the HS's in the US, as my HS was not on the list. But I know they looked. Not sure if that makes the Moms out there feel better or not.

I think the admissions game is pretty nuts. I've done it 3 (now 4) times: college, Med School x 2 and now residency. Residency seems to make the most sense, as I can handle being judged on weather or not I've published... but the rest of the processes are kind of a toss-up. One of our admission deans joked with me the other day "next year we are going to use handwriting analysis instead of the regular method of picking the next class", proving that even people who are involved in the process see that it can be arbitrary.