margins. As is, 50% of students admitted are below the average GPA/ACT composite score (obviously) so there is plenty of room to admit the hypothetical candidate that you mentioned. For me, the biggest problem is rejecting "perfect" candidates. I.e., candidates who check every box but for some reason the admissions office dinged them.

I'm talking about candidates like some CB posters have discussed over the months including those who are in the 70th percentile and above for ACT/GPA composite score compared to the prior year's admitted students. Any one of those candidates who is a seminary graduate, has an ecclesiastical endorsement and has objective extracurriculars should be automatically accepted. Instead, this year there have been numerous applicants in this category with AMAZING extracurriculars who haven't been admitted. For me, that outcome is unacceptable for an institution like BYU. Resources should not be spent on having admissions officers read 60,000+ admissions essays. BYU isn't a small liberal arts college where such an approach would be manageable. Rather, it is a faith-based institution with members around the world who pay tithing and want their children to have the "BYU experience". When their over-achieving children get rejected en masse I consider it to be a systemic problem.