They’re not necessarily saying that the kids have no personality, they’re saying that the personality doesn’t come through in the applications.
I’ve been reading a lot of advice columns about writing the essay, and I’ve been watching a lot of college acceptance reaction videos. One video in particular was a young Asian man opening his Ivy Day decisions. He was rejected and waitlisted everywhere until he opened his Yale portal, where he was admitted. He was ecstatic. He said, before he opened the decision, that he was expecting a no because he wrote the supplements on the last day of December and he hadn’t showed them to his parents so he was sure they weren’t any good.
Anecdote is not data, I know. But the essay advice columns that make the most sense to me state that you should show your essay to as few people as possible, and that you should only make minimal spelling/grammar changes in response to feedback. I’m wondering if it’s possible that Asian kids are more likely to overwork their essays due to anxiety, and in doing so they defeat the purpose of conveying their own unique voice.