Wouldn’t the fact that an elite college admissions officer would “prefer” it make it the choice answer to the question which is really “which of these two options would an elite college admissions officer prefer?”
I’m just having a little fun with semantics here, I get your point and respect it, and don’t feel it is mutually exclusive to mine. I think we should turn our vitriol back over to the threads where people don’t honor their promises! 
Happy Halloween all. May you all get plenty of Reeses Cups (and no stupid apples or pennies) in your bags today!