[pmiller2]

>Third, the college application undermines my value as an individual. Over the past seventeen years, I pursued my passions, excelled at every task I set my mind to, and tried to give back to the community that got me to where I am today. I should be in demand.

You're conflating your value as an individual with your value to other people. Pursuing passions and giving back is great for your value as an individual, but most of the world doesn't actually care. Unless your passion is something that other people can use to make money, it's not going to be relevant to anyone else. I don't care if someone I hire to do a job is the world's greatest amateur ichthyologist if I'm hiring them to do a job that doesn't involve fish.

The sooner you learn this, the better off you will be. I used to believe similarly that if I worked hard, went to school, and got a degree, that would be enough to get me a decent job. I was wrong. Nobody cared about any of that. All they wanted to know was could I do anything for them that would make them more money than it cost to hire me.

By all means, pursue whatever passions you want, but don't think it's necessarily going to get you anywhere in the world.

[e40]

All they wanted to know was could I do anything for them that would make them more money than it cost to hire me.

To this I would add "without a lot of drama or other management overhead."

[pmiller2]

I would say that's subsumed into the cost of hiring someone. The amount of drama/overhead that is tolerable depends on how much it costs to replace them. If you're going to spend a 5 figure amount interviewing someone, as a recent HN submission pointed out, you have an incentive to try and fix a few issues before you give someone the boot. If you can just literally hang a sign up and open your door and get qualified people coming in to apply, then you'll probably get rid of someone who's the least bit of trouble.