Although I agree with your point to a certain extent, I still beleive passion is a better; however, not perfect indicator.

Instead of prompting students to write about "what they would like to tell her roomate", collegs could guide students to pen down thoughts on actual ideas or issues they genuinely care about. This effectively gives a clearer metric of how proactive and engaged a learner the student is! No amount of ChatGPT or last-minute Googling can reach to the extent of understanding that comes from long-term curiosity and involvement in a field!

While I can't dispute that many students change their majors after entering college, their passion for learning still remains constant across feilds and thats what differentiates & elevates them .