I think that the term you’re looking for is “spike”, meaning a highly developed interest with very strong achievement. A hook is being an under-represented minority, or the child of a major donor, or of a very famous person, or even a legacy. For example, the older Obama girl had a hook, in that her father was the president, and she was an under-represented minority. Andrew Barth Feldman had a spike in musical theater, in that he had already starred in a Broadway musical.
I think you look very interesting as a humanities applicant. Your GPA, class rank, projected test score, and extracurriculars put you into range for top schools, including Brown and Yale, but it’s no sure thing.
It sounds as if Comp Lit is who you are, whether or not it would give you a jump on acceptance. I don’t think that you would do better to try to re-package yourself as a different type of scholar, even if you could. But I don’t think that admissions committees will think, “Oh, finally! Someone who is NOT planning on a career in medicine or Comp Sci. Let’s take her!” So the answer is no, I don’t think that your field of interest will give you a strong advantage over other applicants.
Scholastic Gold Key is a regional award. Are there any other national-level awards that you could apply for that would have results out in time to be considered for early or regular applications? Having a national level award would be a definite plus.
Another thing that is very do-able to improve one’s application credentials late in the game is to prep for the ACT or SAT. It sounds as if you’re decided upon the ACT. Do you seem to do better, percentile-wise, on the ACT practice tests than you did on the PSAT, or on SAT practice tests? If yes, then I agree, focus on the ACT. You can do a LOT to improve your predicted ACT score. My oldest said that the best late-in-the-game thing one could do, with the most return on time invested, to improve one’s application, was to put in some standardized test prep time. The best prep for the ACT is to do sections of retired ACT tests (which can be found LEGALLY online). Even if you don’t have time for private individual tutoring (your anticipated current range would make me think that a standard group prep class for it would not be relevant for you), you can lay out a self-prep routine that could boost you to a 36. You’re probably close enough on English that all you would need to do is practice tests. Science isn’t about science - it’s about interpretation of data as presented in tables, graphs, etc. All you need for that is practice, by doing retired ACT tests. For the math, my son used Brook Hanson’s two volume series, and practice tests, but he said that he would have done much better if he had already had Calc BC, because it taught him the calculator functions that would have helped him go through the test more quickly. After you have prepped yourself for math as well as you can, THAT is when a private tutor might be of assistance, since I suspect this is your weak point (you don’t mention any AP math). That’s what we should have done, looking back, when kid kept getting 34-35 on the ACT math practice tests. Anyway, kid started off with maybe a 31-32 on his first practice ACT, and with about 40-60 hrs of self-prep (using the retired tests and the Brooke Hanson 2-volume series Best ACT Math Books Ever), he wound up with a 36 overall, with a 34 in math, on the one administration he took. This is one thing that you can do now to improve your application. A top score on the ACT would say to top schools that you can excel there (even though next year will be test-optional too).
So no, I don’t think that your intended major would give you a significant advantage, but I do think that with the trajectory of achievement that you’re already on, hopefully combined with a top standardized test score, and possibly with a national level award, if you can get one in time, you do have a chance at one or more of the most competitive schools, especially if you use early action/decision judiciously.