There is a very fine line between "Trying very hard" and "Trying too hard." I've seen people try very hard for getting a job, and then stop right before the finish line. In this case, it's all about the outcome you want. It seems like she wound up with the right outcome (first choice school, eventually landing in the right job) so it worked out.
I can't begin to describe how many people I've interviewed who had no idea what my (small) firm did.
This is another thing I find strange in interviews. People are expected to know the ins and outs of the company. Fair enough if you are Apple or Google, but for anything smaller, why would you be expected to know much about the internals of a company.
So everyone just reads the webpage, the interviewer gets the answer he expected. Not sure how that makes the developer better at his job. Sure they took an hour or so to read the webpage, but does it in any way matter?
(Actually one company I applied to recently did the opposite - they had a fake webpage with minimal detail - I am not sure if this was to catch out bullshitters. Anyway, when asked what I knew about the company, I was honest and said I didn't know much. The job didn't go ahead in the end, though the guy said he was impressed with me at the end of the interview).
Then again there was the person (actually, over 6 years, 2) I interviewed who thought we were a completely different company in a different industry (we were a broadcaster, they'd confused us with a bank with a similar name). A bit of basic research is not a bad thing.
I'm more impressed with people (for web dev jobs anyway) who've taken the time to poke around on the site and figure out our technology choices, even at a pretty basic level.
I can't begin to describe how many people I've interviewed who had no idea what my (small) firm did.