[hgsgm]

There's not what's happening. What's happening is (made up numbers, relative proportion a true)

1000 ALDC students qualify. 200 admit.

1000 non-ALDC students qualify, with equivalent resumes. 50 admit.

Thus it's easier to get in at ALDC, all else equal, and les qualified ALDC displace "overqualified" non-ALDC, or if you believe their qualifications are truly equal and those 2000 students can't be compared to each other, ALDC get loaded dice for the random selection.

[pknomad]

What's ALDC? (a quick google search gets me Abby Lee Dance company which I presume is incorrect)

[deely3]

From other comment: [A]thlete, [L]egacy, [D]ean's interest list (i.e children of big donors), [C]hildren of faculty and staff