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I am involved in helping to evaluate young men and women who have applied to one of the top schools in the U.S. What I do is to interview them and try to find out what makes them tick. I have no idea what either their grades or their test scores are, nor do I want to know. What I do want to know is what they are excited about. What do they like to do. One thing I especially look at is what they do outside of school; what's motivated them to do what they do, and how much do they commit to it. We are specifically instructed to look more approvingly at a kid who does one thing very well, taking an active and even leadership role in it, than the kid who is involved in 5 different things but doesn't put much of themselves into it besides their time.