Maintaining a clear and cohesive application to ivies, stanford, mit, etc.?

I’ve read that the best applications present a clear picture of the applicant where the AO can picture who they are and what they’ll bring to the campus. For example, a Stanford student centered his application around his passion for communication of ideas by talking about his art, films, and speech and debate.

I’m trying to center my application around my passions in science, language, and art. My activities in scientific research/biology olympiad/running science club, creating a program teaching English to refugees/self studying Arabic, and running art club/creating art at home shaped my perception of the world with attention to detail and appreciation for diverse ideas. Applying as a biomedical engineering major, I can intertwine what I’ve learned in science, language, and art to bring a different perspective as a student, and a different angle in research.

Does that sound cohesive?? I think science and language is a nice tie considering my ECs, but art not so much. The only reason I’m including art is because my art teacher loved the portfolio. But I don’t want it to confuse the AO about who I am and what I want to do.

My common app describes my pivot moment when I developed awareness in my world, starting with my relationship with my family and expanding outwards. When I write my supplements, the content should in some way model the ideas I mentioned above.

It sounds like you are on the right track. The art component can’t hurt; it can only help you by showing your creative side and well-roundedness.

I don’t know… I feel like colleges would rather see a few interests rather than me spreading myself out. They’re all pencil drawings any way, so while there’s quality I think universities like to see variety in medias, so even though I put a lot of work into it it’d probably wouldn’t get rated that high.

My D didn’t aim as high as you but her roundedness came out, for example in her essay she mentioned about the play she wrote wrote, produced and directed with a classmate. Theater has nothing to do with her intended major but it clearly didn’t hurt her acceptance at NYU. Colleges like well-rounded.