It reminds me of something I heard on NPR in the fall. There was a famous liberal arts college who was going over the applications as a committee. They totally dismissed the application of kid who had started with APs in their freshman year, and went for a kid who had tried three different religions because they thought that kid was more interesting and open to new ideas.
I think we'd need to know a lot more about the entire applications and the discussion that happened among the admissions committee before we cast judgement. Here's one possible scenario:
Both students have near-perfect GPAs, both totally kicked their GRE's. AP student attended a private prep school that is known for pushing APs, and where taking the most APs the earliest is considered a sign of status. AP student wrote a cookie-cutter essay, and has lackluster recommendations that only speak to how well this student memorizes information.
Religion-Hopping student attended a fairly ordinary public school, but took several AP classes, and has effusive recommendations that speak to the student's insightful questions and willingness to challenge ideas. Religion-hopping student wrote a scholarly essay comparing the ethical systems of the different religions, including references to the academic literature which the student must have dug up on their own because there are no philosophy or ethics classes offered at their high school.
The media (even NPR) just love over-simplified "gotcha" stories. This is almost certainly one of them.
