Tyler and his readers are trying to solve last week’s puzzle: Why do colleges care so much more about extracurricular activities employers?

Tyler’s answer is that it’s an attempt to raise future donations:

Colleges want to expand the heterogeneity of the selection criteria so
they can pick who they want.  If it’s a top college or university,
mostly this means limiting the number of Asians and maximizing the
number of future donors and by the way those two goals tend to move in
tandem.

Many other readers just dispute the premise – several from personal experience.  I’m willing to buy that some employers care, but could they possibly care as much as admissions committees?  I’ve often heard high school students talking about their need to do extracurriculars to get into college; I can’t recall anyone in college talking about feigning interests to make themselves more attractive to employers.  Is my experience atypical?