An admirable effort sure, but I can't help but feel it's empty words. The careful avoidance of any mention of techniques for evaluation is the most damning evid

An admirable effort sure, but I can't help but feel it's empty words. The careful avoidance of any mention of techniques for evaluation is the most damning evidence. The reason the battery of achievement based metrics have become a defacto standard is they are comparable. Every student taking an AP is taking a known test, and receiving a known score. "Community involvement" in contrast is much more vague. It's hard to put a marker on the relative impact of various activities. Do you discount things if it's organized by a third party (ie the community services most prep schools already require for graduations)? How do you account for the economic factor? It's a lot easier to be involved in your community if you aren't working to assist your struggling family. But at the same time, do you reject a more qualified candidate purely because they come from greater privilege? Simple market forces are going to force the achievement race simply because spots are so limited yet have such a drastic effect on life trajectory.