<p>I do interview abroad and that has a number of interesting characteristics. First the applicant pool is much more self-selecting. I see almost nobody who applies to MIT who is genuinely not academically competitive (and of those who I do see they tend to be expatriate Americans). It is also much harder to stand out given the 3% admit rate, so I accept that I might have a skewed perspective.</p>
<p>It is also fair that the international institutions, which most of my applicants are also applying to, tend to value ECs much less in admissions than do any American institution.</p>
<p>That being said, I regularly meet students at interview who do boast about their love of community service and their fellow human beings. These are claims that I am able to probe in exacting detail at the interview, and many, many times I have indicated in my report that their community service rhetoric, and even what they have done over the past year or so, does not seem to match everything else I have seen, or does not seem to be motivated. This is one of the advantages of the interview.</p>