There are a lot of international applicants to top tier schools each year. A very large number of those are Asians with outstanding test scores, outstanding grade records, but typical backgrounds. International students also tend to be academically dishonest. Whether that takes form in a few lies on their application or in their classroom, the goal is to gain an edge over other applicants to the same universities. Now this certainly isn’t representative of everyone, I’d be an idiot to say it was, but there is a significant amount of truth to it. Colleges are very aware of this, especially ones in the more competitive category, and as such, they have to treat all applicants with a very unique sense of scrutiny and try to get to know the applicant. It doesn’t matter if you’re the president of 20 clubs, if you don’t put any passion into them then they hold no value. Passion is the #1 thing colleges look for. Quality over quantity.