Can't be the logbook hours (unless it took 120 just to gain the PPL!), because I had just short of that and slipped through alright. I'd guess the academic record wasn't impressive enough to make FunnyOnion add up to "a good bet on paper" as we were told they look for.
It's a useful profiling criteria, but academic success is something that just falls into many people's laps, courtesy in particular of a financially supportive family. Come the revolution... those who have personally achieved the most will gain the most! But life in the big business and public sectors is not that fair, currently.