<p>One thing I haven’t seen emphasized here that I emphasized in my parent portion for my son and my niece focused on in her apps is Character. Asking me for my son’s special talents, I let his scores, grades, and letters of recommendation speak to academic, athletic, and musical talents. I talked about his sense of justice, fairness, and honesty, and in general how important it is for him to always “do the right thing.” It may sound overly simple, but I think in all of this effort to package the perfect candidate, the character aspect gets ignored. Talking about character in and of itself may be just unique enough. It worked for us.</p>