[whatshisface]

That's funny because the advice everyone gave me was that research was more important than academics for getting into a really good graduate program.

[fastneutron]

Exactly, so I can only speculate at this point on the motivations. I suspect undergrad admissions committees are incentivized to maximize the first year retention rate, so they are overly conservative when it comes to selecting for people who they think won’t flunk out the first year.