I’m not an Admissions Counselor, but based on my research and my D’s experience, there are some awards/honors that seemed to help her admissions and some scholarships release semifinalist/advancement information early enough (Nov/Dec), that they can be conveyed to admissions reps. On the scholarship side, my D was a finalist for US Senate Youth Program and made it to the final round of the Coca Cola Scholars program and knew about status in both of those programs early enough to communicate them to admissions at her top schools. My D was also a finalist for the US Presidential Scholars program which while super selective, is often dismissed and advice is colleges won’t care because most nominations are focused on the top ACT/SAT scores in the state and colleges already know your scores, but for my D whose scores were average at best, we know her nomination came from leadership and community service and was probably from State Sec of Education.
I think there are other selective awards/programs that are so selective they are impressive. For example, D spent a summer with US State Dept NSLI-Y program in Amman and she also spent a summer working for City Year as part of the Bank of America Student Leaders programs. NSLI-Y is pretty choosy, but admission rate isn’t freakishly low (~15%), but for BofA, the “admission rate” for our area was well below 1% (4 interns selected from 600+ applicants)
At the end of the day, my D (2020) was admitted to a number of schools where her stats were not above their 50th percentile, but she had good, upward trending grades, strong rigor, and I think some of the selective programs and awards reflected her passion for leadership and community service.