college is fake

So a guy in my grade just got into UChicago, and I’m genuinely confused. He has about an 88/100 average (we’re international), probably around the top 40% of our class. No SAT, took a bunch of online courses to make things easier, pretty average extracurriculars, no major awards, no special admissions advantage, not super wealthy, not an athlete… and he got into Econ? And this was RD too, which makes it even more surprising. How does this happen?