<p>I'm sure this question's been asked, but i don't wanna look for it, so I'm going to ask again:</p>
<p>Is it better to focus on one thing and be really good at it (like Int'l olympiads, etc) or to be somewhat good in everything but nothing special? (no awards or anything)</p>
<p>the first one.</p>
<p>bump... anyone else? or does everyone agree?</p>
<p>I'd agree it's better to be really good at one thing than mediocre at many things, but it's still important to show yourself as a well-rounded person, so you should be involved in at least a couple other things to show that your dedication extends beyond that one activity you excel in.</p>
<p>How about excelling in a few? :p</p>
<p>Excelling in a few is great..that typically indicates "passion" about something, which is what the adcoms look for. They want to create an interesting balance of interests in a class by mixing people of different passions. If adcoms look for "well rounded" they know they risk having a homogenous (and boring) class of similarly well rounded people.</p>