<p>You’ve got a lot of good numbers and ECs and stuff, and that’ll give you a solid place in the applicant pool to some extent, but what’ll get you in at high-applicant/very selective universities like this is standing out. You challenge yourself and you cover all the bases–sports, leadership, honors+awards, community service, etc–but what’s your strongest point? Something I’ve heard a lot of is that your application needs to have a theme. What stands out most about you? What’s your strongest area of interest? What has made you who you are? </p>
<p>Your numbers put you in good standing with everyone else. But the question colleges ask when they see that is this: “He’s got great grades–like most of our applicants. What is there about him personally that says we should accept him? Why is he unique?”</p>
<p>Be sure to answer that question when it comes to application time, and to make it believable and apparent. Show them (instead of telling them) who you are–it’s cliche, but it’s true.</p>