<p>As far as the SAT thing goes, it's more important to have a good math score than verbal score -- if your math score is good, they're probably not going to care a great deal about verbal. But it's true that SAT scores just aren't the most important factor (haha, I got in with a 690M SAT I).</p>
<p>Areas in the application that show "personal qualities" include your ECs (since there are only room for 5, the ones you pick tend to say a lot about your priorities/passions), your essay, your short answer questions (one of them is "Tell us something you do in your free time"), and your interview.</p>