That is what I was afraid of when you referred to ‘tripping’. I am profoundly sorry that your environment is that sort of competitive. Spend some time learning about the culture of the schools you are applying to- some are decidedly more collaborative than others. On that metric, I would put JHU and Yale ahead of Harvard.
A tick-box mindset is ‘if you do these things you will get this result’. For selective college admissions the usual tick-list is: rigorous academics, top stats, sport (preferably team), art (preferably performing), community service, some awards, a meaningful leadership role. There is even a “stereotypical Asian” version- perfect stats, piano or violin, solo sport (eg, tennis, martial arts) and STEM competitions. The list keeps getting longer (starting a non-profit has only been on the list for about a decade or so, but imo is already going out of favor) as high achieving, ambitious students try to tick all the boxes that AOs have indicated they value. When everybody works to the same list it is harder to stand out as an individual. In no way am I disparaging of your accomplishments! just urging you to remember to keep you front and center. When you do your essays, and write up your LoR cheat sheet, be sure that a good sense of the person who would be coming* to their campus shines through. To that end, the thing that I liked best in your first post is that you and one of your teachers share the same sense of humor- it caught my attention because everything else reads as being so disciplined, so focused, so single minded that it was a happy thing to see that there is still a 17(ish) year old who can laugh in there!
*trusting that by Sept 2021 colleges are back to normal…