Your girl, who had perfect grades, might not have gotten in because of that; because she's a girl. I don't want to sound sexist, but girls are known for being better students and because of that, there's more competition between girls. Also, she might not have been involved in an unusual enough activity. She might have just been the Captain of the soccer team or the Editor of the yearbook. In the old days, that used to sound great. We thought of that as a bright, well-rounded kid. Parents used to think that if you had a bright, well-rounded kid like the Editor of the yearbook, the Captain of the soccer team, fifty hours of community service, volunteering at the aquarium; that was good enough. Now there are parents that have branded their kids, starting at an early age in response to the extreme marketing that colleges have done. Another part of that is that perfect grades need to be in the most difficult courses. So your daughter might not have gotten in because her "A" grades were in easier courses; whereas, another girl may have taken twenty-six APs and have a 5.8 GPA, while your daughter's is just 4.2. Of course, testing counts and the whole rest of the resume does as well.