<p>What does "well-rounded" exactly mean? Having the perfect grades and some good EC? Or having a lot of EC?</p>
<p>I think it means that the applicant has competitively high SAT scores and grades, but also demonstrated signficant involvement in community service, leadership in school government or another organization, excelled in athletics and the arts. There are many applicants who apply to HYP with perfect or near perfect high SAT scores and ranked 1-3 in their class, whose extra curricular lists as seen on some of these threads - begin to look the same. As a result, extraordinary applicants begin to look ordinary in the applicant pool. The well rounded applicant I believe has that something extra that shows an interesting combination of things done in school and outside, and it is clear the applicant excells in many areas.
There is also another category of applicant who demonstrates exceptional passion, talent and individual achievement in a particular field or field usually at the national or international level. This applicant can in addition to standing out for those accomplishments, also be considered well rounded if they excell in a variety of other areas.</p>
<p>not as much well rounded, but well lopsided. choose carefully what you participate in and dedicate yourself to it.</p>