Is this how (a few) students trick ad-coms to get into top colleges?

I did a post on WSO recently about how banks were trying to attract millennials by providing student debt programs. A part of the comment section was on how Wall Street was still enamoured with the Ivy League and similar colleges.

But the trait of looking at this institutions as a gate-pass to a brighter future trickles down to even high school students across countries. This article in The Economist details how an entire industry in China is thriving by feeding off the frenzy and ambition of getting into top schools in the US. The 'clever' ones' have figured out that volunteering activities act as a brownie point on the CV and the 'clever and rich' ones' are paying for such experiences!

A Beijing school official told me about a boy from north-eastern China whose father flew him in a private plane to Tibet – for just a day – to make a video of him aiding poor minorities.

Closer home, this article on NYT shows how people are making their steps to game the system and trick the ad-com. Though it mentions that experts are able to look through it, one can only wonder as to how our obsession with education and brand name of colleges have brought us to this level.

Richard Weissbourd, a child psychologist and Harvard lecturer who has studied the admissions process in the interest of reforming it, recalled speaking with wealthy parents who had bought an orphanage in Botswana so their children could have a project to write and talk about.

What do you think guys? Is it just something that we have to accept or is there a way to deter/educate (not the ivy way though) such people?

P.S: I am sure that we would all agree on the fact that there are people who put their efforts into community service and volunteering activities out of genuine interest and passion. This is specifically about those saints who transform into Mandela, Teresa and Gandhi just a couple of months before the admission deadlines.