<p>Shadman:</p>
<p>"try to parallel their grades and ECs"</p>
<p>Depends what you mean.</p>
<p>If you mean "follow your OWN ideas, your OWN ECs, your OWN studies with imagination, passsion, intensity, conviction, purpose"--very good!</p>
<p>If you mean: "take 10 APs, be in science competitions, help out in Central America because Mary did those things and she got in"--you are on the wrong track.</p>