<p>A word of advice from a mom who went through this last year. Please take my advice with a grain of salt, however, as I'm not a professional college anything.</p>
<p>Honors societies. If you earned this in any way, then do list it v. simply. If you just signed up, your call.</p>
<p>ECs with time commitments and involvement. Do list every one and explain the involvement. But if you signed up for stuff only to put it on your college app and did nothing - leave it off.</p>
<p>Teachers commenting on outside school interests - they have to know about them to comment. My D's English teacher had seen my D dancing, even just pirouetting down the hallways. She included that in the rec, as much because it spoke to who she is as because of any achievement.</p>
<p>IMVHO please don't do the summary statement of who you are on top of the resume. You are high school kids. That stuff to me is pretentious until you are interviewing for a job at director level or above:). </p>
<p>The adcoms know you are teenagers. They are familiar with teenagers. They want really smart teenagers who have retained their authentic self and interest and humor and uniqueness and interests despite the semi-death march that is college prep these days.</p>
<p>I will never forget an article in the New York Times magazine that quoted a Harvard adcom as saying he saw many applicants as the "stunned survivors of a lifelong bootcamp."</p>
<p>Find some way to let the adcoms know that you managed to achieve your 4.3 grade averages and your 1500 SATS without killing yourself because that level of performance is native to your being, that ability and that discipline. That you had some time and energy left over to develop the early stirrings of a self that will have some kind of impact on the world over time.</p>
<p><em>gets off soapbox</em></p>
<p>Enjoy it as best you can. Try your best and if it doesn't happen I promise this setback will not be the one that determines your life outcome.</p>