that they better use essays and references to figure out which students’ community-service projects are heartfelt and which are merely window dressing
That will reward the people who are best at faking sincerity. College admissions officers who spend about 15 minutes reading an application should not try to play God and peer into the applicant's soul.
No matter what admissions processes the most selective colleges use, a large ratio of applicants to seats will cause competition and stress.
Last weekend my middle school son participated in a 1-day math competition at Philips Exeter, in New Hampshire. Many of the winning teams for the last several years have been from Shanghai, China
https://exeter-math.appspot.com/archive/2015results.html . If rich Chinese are willing to send their children around the world for a math contest, imagine what they will do to send their children to an Ivy.
