<p>What's really weird is how EVERY college claims to want the well-rounded applicants, and they all say it in their catalogs and web sites like they alone just thought up the concept. The higher education landscape is certainly ripe for at least a few schools to say "To hell with well-rounded, we want the smartest people out there, and if our sports teams suck, and nobody gets laid, who cares?" </p>
<p>I think places like U of Chicago, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Harvey Mudd and CalTech seem to be LEANING in that direction. They need to be RUNNING in that direction in order for there to be more true variety among schools.</p>
<p>Also, if you do a little research on the origins of the premium put on well-rounded applicants, you'll find that HYP came up with the idea in the early 20th Century in order to limit the # of Jewish students (who were increasing in % when they went with mostly merit-based admissions for a while). Eventually everybody else followed their lead. Now the preference for well-rounded students is taken as something noble, and proof that the schools really care about the downtrodden whom their successful applicants helped with community service, and the shameful origin of this practice is forgotten.</p>