This thread could quickly become a long one, as the college admissions process is essentially a black box, with no rhyme or reason (well, aside from a few basic parameters). When the acceptance rate at these schools hovers at or below 10%, there is no doubt that hundreds, neigh,
thousands, of completely qualified and spectacular applicants are denied admission.
Expecting Dean's List Finalist (or Winner) status to
guarantee admission to two particular schools seems far fetched.
I've seen students on our team do remarkably well in college acceptances this year (including one Dean's List Finalist), and a few months ago as I was helping some of them revise and fine-tune essays and short answers for college apps, I liked to think that their wealth of experiences in FIRST meant something to these universities. As I was writing Dean's List Nominations for this year's Juniors, I had the same thing in mind, but more importantly, I wanted them to have a chance at being recognized for their success and achievements for their own merit. To some schools I'm sure it does carry heavy weight; based on the statements in that video, I'm sure of it. But no single activity, award, or accomplishment (starting a charity, having a perfect GPA, high SAT, tough family story, athletics, Dean's List) is a guarantee of acceptance anywhere.
Expecting this thread to conjure up useful, measurable data is a difficult proposition - there is no way that those 350 students had similar applications outside of their Dean's List status, nor did they apply to the same schools. We can't really "compare" students in that way; only university admissions folks have the ability to do that
I wish your student the best of luck and I'm sure he or she will be able to make the most of the offers he or she received and end up at a great place.