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<p>I think we lose more ideas by insisting our students go run a fundraiser, build a parkbench for their town, and then fly to Bolivia to volunteer to feed homeless babies. I feel like there are lots of smart people who, starting with junior year of high school, stop developing their minds and instead become professional community service activists. </p>
<p>I feel if you make recognition of “academic exploits” tied to actual intellectual development, then this apparent arms race does not detract from the goal of producing better minds. If person X gets a rec that they come up with creative insights in class and person Y gets an “A” but also does research, I would favor person X. However, some of these academic ECs do reflect intellectual development, and the people in the admissions office need to have enough experience with the various academic ECs to properly evaluate them. My experience is that they really don’t, and some of them admit not caring how smart people are as long as they can “do the work.”</p>