Acceptees- What made you stand out?

hey, i’m an asian sophomore at a large IB high school. i am currently an distinguished honor roll student and an active member of my school’s SGA. i joined MUN and debate this year and have won a few minor awards at various conferences. also, i participate in key club, amnesty international, the school newspaper, and mock trial. i’m taking a challenging courseload with 2 IB courses and 1 AP course, the rest being honors courses. sound familiar?

i’ve noticed that many CCers have already been accepted to amazing schools (congrats to all of you, by the way). what i was wondering was: what made you stand out in such a competitive applicant pool?

as you can see, there is nothing that distinguishes me from the rest of the ivy league applicants. i’m just another average suburban upper middle class asian girl, and i’m sure that princeton and yale have enough of those already. i would really like to further pursue my interests in politics, foreign affairs, and debate; however, i’m unsure of where to start. do any of you have any suggestions as to how i can pursue these interests in high school and increase my chances of ivy league acceptance?

thanks, you guys.

P.S. i hope that none of you mistake me for someone who does everything just to get into a good college. i am truly interested in learning more about humanities and politics, but i’m just unsure of how to go about doing so.

<p>oh, seriously, kids.</p>

<p>Use your summer interning at a think-tank or in a government official's office. That's a start. Also--why are you so interested in Ivy League schools? Start looking into less traditional schools that have amazing political science programs. There are many of them. Trinity College has a unique human rights program. Look into things like that.</p>

<p>there's pressure because my parents have been working so hard to save up for my college education, and they refuse to spend it on anything less than the best. it's either ivy league (or MIT, stanford, caltech) or UVA.</p>

<p>Start a club, or take an active role in a "young dem/republican" club or a debate club, or current events club, etc.</p>