The New York Times

“Colleges want to see kids who are passionate in one area,” said Bev Taylor, founder of the Ivy Coach, a college admissions consultancy.

“Everyone in admissions started seeing essays about these volunteering trips six or seven years ago,” said Bev Taylor, the founder of the Ivy Coach, a New York-based college admissions counseling service. “Now we have to tell kids not to write about them.”

One reason, Ms. Taylor said, is that universities sometimes take weaker students who commit themselves through early decisions and reject stronger students who apply later, or put them on waiting lists.

“Bev Taylor, a guidance counselor on Long Island, said that some of her students were thinking about staying closer to home, and that New York City colleges like Columbia, N.Y.U. and Fordham “are still top choices.”