Signing up for activities and volunteer opportunities should be based on personal interest rather than a desire to impress college admissions officers, but this doesn’t seem to happen very often. For example, when students show up at a Thanksgiving food drive, half the people are only there to add volunteering to burnish their resume. College applications are supposed to showcase genuine interests and talents, but people end up only committing to activities that are supposed to make them look appealing to colleges, and that takes much of the integrity out of extracurriculars.