<p>
[quote]
Or is that just the imposition of an additional condition of questionable relevance?
[/quote]
Character, as reflected in one's willingness to be of service to others, is a factor in selective college admissions. If you look at the pool of highly selective schools in this country, they could be considered a national resource, although privately operated. I believe that these schools DO look for the quality of a person's character and personality. Those factors do have an influence on the overall ambience of a college. Are you suggesting that admissions should be based on the Academic Index alone? If that's the case, you'll just get a bunch of kids whose only focus in life is test prep -- it's bad enough as it is, I think. Then, how do you differentiate among all those perfect SAT kids? I guess I do value testing and grades as a threshold, but there must be more to selecting students than just numbers.</p>