Interestingly, I think there is a certain sort of potential applicant who is drawn to such ECs precisely because the standards for a very strong outcome are relatively ascertainable. And that is fine if those are actually activities you love, but then I think enough other people pile into those activities for that reason, and you end up facing a lot of competition to distinguish yourself. And some people will then distinguish themselves, but it is a hard path.
Other ECs cannot be like that because there is no way to turn them into a competition with clear winners. But that doesn’t mean anything goes, it just means it is less ascertainable who will stand out. Nonetheless, I do wonder if some of those would be easier paths for many kids, but they end up avoiding them because of that lack of ascertainable indicators of competitive success.
But then someone starts talking about “passion projects” and a bunch of kids start asking people to tell them what would be a good passion project for college admissions, which is kinda missing the whole point.
I guess what I am saying is it is kinda easy to diagnose some of the problems, but I am sympathetic to why so many kids end up on these paths anyway. It takes some real courage to actually do what these colleges say you should do, because the truth is they are not offering you any guarantee it will actually work in your case.
But of course if you have high numbers, some great college will want you anyway, and you will also have had a good childhood . . . but again, it asking a lot out of these kids to resist the peer pressure, possibly resist the family pressure, and just do your thing and be confident it will all work out in some way.