Thanks to a combination of excess test prep ("Tommy has been a client since 8th grade) and immense parent snowplowing (not sure how you scored that bioresearch study with a two parent doctor household) there is an immense level of “achievement inflation” amon high schoolers. The 35+ ACT, 1550+ SAT and 4.0 GPA trifecta don’t get you as far as it used to. As for NMS, max award now down to $5k - achievement inflation in action. And you can’t impact whether you have a demographic diversiifer or tragic circumstance card to play. All you can do is be your genuine self and insure your effort and authenicity come through. These are the traits that are truly “above average”