Contrast this "trade secret" to a chat with an Oxford don, and you'll find the don is quite straightforward in admitting they are fallible. Some admits are duds, and some are hits. Decisions are made based on a small amount of information, but only the dons decide what happens. They try hard to let in disadvantaged kids, but it's a crap shoot deciding who has potential and who doesn't. They rarely care about anything other than academics. (I'm not sure how they recruit the rowers.)
It's just laughable that an admissions process is a trade secret, and unless there's a compelling explanation given, I would assume they claim this because they are being sued by Asians about bias, and giving places to legacies, which is just as bad for a place that sells itself on excellence.
Contrast this "trade secret" to a chat with an Oxford don, and you'll find the don is quite straightforward in admitting they are fallible. Some admits are duds, and some are hits. Decisions are made based on a small amount of information, but only the dons decide what happens. They try hard to let in disadvantaged kids, but it's a crap shoot deciding who has potential and who doesn't. They rarely care about anything other than academics. (I'm not sure how they recruit the rowers.)
It's just laughable that an admissions process is a trade secret, and unless there's a compelling explanation given, I would assume they claim this because they are being sued by Asians about bias, and giving places to legacies, which is just as bad for a place that sells itself on excellence.