Regarding 3.1, 3.2 GPA students who were awarded scholarships vs. 4.0 students who were not --
Academic/Book intelligence is only one kind of intelligence. Some would say that beyond a basic level of academic intelligence, the most important intelligence is emotional. The ability to deal with stress, setback, and keep driving forward. The next would be social. 99% of the jobs both in the military and in the civilian world require working with people... gaining their respect, colaborating, working together toward accomplishing a task or goal. Then there is physical intelligence -- think a movement, and the body does it as requested -- we can also call this being a "natural athlete", or "Very coordinated. Then there is spacial intelligence... the ability to understand the 3 dimensional world and how mountains, chopper parts, etc. relate to each other in space. Many kinds of intelligence, most of which cannot be captured in GPA or SAT/ACT or class rank.
All those intelligences -- book, emotional, social, physical, spacial... are needed in the real world, and in the military as well. Each Board looks at a candidate to see how all these intelligences combine together to make a good future officer.
How is emotional and social intelligence measured? Leadership finds itself mostly in these two categories of intelligence. That shows up in the essay and interview. I don't think anyone would complain that an arrogant, 4.0 student who puts people off, fidgets and looks at his/her shoes in the PMS interview, or is clueless about how to be a friend and team member would fail to gain a scholarship! At the end the PMS interview, the PMS essentially must ask him/herself the question: would I follow this person into battle?
Essentially the #1 selection criterion is Leadership... after that is demonstrated, only then do academic intelligence and physical fitness play a role, but a supporting one.