<p>I think that they really want to see the application of said passion. I wonder how many people got in without research or Intel or whatever else. I guess it makes sense. Would you rather have a very high caliber student that is likely to have a science passion but would, later in life, not contribute to the science community (and end up in IBanking or whatever) or a slightly less caliber student (still very strong, though) that is likely to go into the science community in adulthood and contribute to it? I’m not saying I’m the “very high caliber” student or anything, but I definitely can not imagine myself being a practicing scientist, researcher, engineer, etc. Maybe they picked up on that.</p>