[William Tell]

"...they probably should have been admitted in the first place ..."

Top universities receive far, far more applications than they have openings for students. The goal for schools like MIT, Caltech, or Stanford would be to maximize the number of Nobel Prize winners or other accomplished people among their alumni. Only by continuing to admit the best can they hope to maintain their reputations as top schools.

In 1983, Stanford had 7 applicants for each spot in their Graduate School of Engineering. They had to say no to six well-qualified students for each one admitted. Many of those denied admittance would probably have succeeded in accomplishing the course work.

[Alberta's Child]

I don't disagree with you. The focus on admitting highly-qualified candidates, though, is much stronger in graduate schools than it is in undergraduate programs. Anyone I know who attended an Ivy League school for an undergraduate degree has told me that it was far harder to get into the school than to stay in it. In fact, I suspect my engineering education at a local state school was better than what I would have gotten at many prominent schools.

I'd also suggest that it's hardly a crisis for six out of every Stanford applicants to do their graduate engineering studies somewhere other than Stanford. It's a good school, but outside of academia its importance for an engineering career pretty much vanishes after someone lands in their first job.