<p>It seems people are going to one side of the ring or the other and defending their point. If I may add something that falls in the middle:</p>
<p>So-called “top” colleges are in positions to cherry pick their classes. Once a certain threshold of academics is reached, unless it’s a very unusual circumstance, lots of soft factors come into play. That’s understood. Given the multiplicity of qualified applicants, the enventual decision process becomes very subjective – it’s definitely an art and not a science.</p>
<p>That being said: the applicant’s interersts, personal essay and EC list paint a picture. These tend to be re-inforced by the LORs. The question on the readers’ mind is: “Will Joe or Nadia be an asset to my college?”</p>
<p>That’s not determined based upon whether or not they could check off a data point of having hadd a paid job, did X number of hours of voluntarism, did intership A rather than another kid’s internship B, was President of the Math club or only the Treasurer, traveled to Haiti to build shelters, likes puppies or rainbows.</p>
<p>EVERYTHING paints a picture. And colleges know that internships are generally a function of the parents’ level of professionalism and connectiveness. How many blue collar families get their kids internships at banks? Reality is more like Camp Counselor or Burger King shift manager.</p>
<p>A profound anecdote about the applicant’s kindness or devotion to school/classmates/community/family, shared by the guidance counselor or teacher will trump all the discussions about “must have EC in intended area of study” or “gotta be a specialist” or “finshed ONLY 2nd place at national competition X”.</p>
<p>People wrack their brains looking over what they perceive as their meagre HS resumes. Guys: you’re only 16 or 17. Colleges know this. Sorry if this seems like rainbows and unicorns but top colleges truly want kind people (albeit very talented and proven scholars) who will contribute to their community. Focus on that aspect of your profile rather than stress that your internship/job/voluntarism doesn’t meet some super-human standard. Focus on being grateful, humble, kind and not entitled or subtley boasting about how you bested all the rest of the kids (one of the biggest turn-offs for file readers is arrogance and entitlement in applicant essays).</p>