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<p>It was worth it for her because she enjoyed it. But if she did not enjoy it to the level of wanting to be there most or all of the time, but were just doing it purely for the purpose of helping her college applications, it would have been a lot of time and effort for relatively little gain in her college chances (she could have instead spent the time perhaps playing a sport that she liked more).</p>
<p>(Yes, this has implications for the tiger parents who insist on specific extracurriculars even though the student may be much more self-motivated in other extracurriculars.)</p>