Students desperate to get into their colleges of choice naturally can't just be satisfied with sending in boring applications, so they trot out their circus acts. They are then shattered to learn that:
. . . college admission has more to do with finding a good fit rather than determining a student's worth.
A lot of job applicants suffer under the same delusion, that it is all about them instead of their prospective employers' needs. At least I did. Learning otherwise was, I think, one of my major accomplishments.