<p>Yeah, you could think what rb3 and countless others would tell you, or you could pick a slightly unusual instrument, like say bassoon, and play it in your school band and whatever other honor bands you can. Then you need to choose one non-overpopulated subject (like say organic chemistry) and do some research in it or at least help a local professor with his research. And keep up the volunteer stuff, maybe keep a journal of neat experiences from it and stuff, so that you can write a stand-out essay about that. Also, you absolutely have got to be planning your teacher recs and getting to know two teachers who you know will teach you for hopefully more than 1 year, etc. </p>
<p>Also, if you can do something where you go to some token latin american country and build houses or some stuff like that, you will appear more ‘diverse and worldly’, which is very important for Yale since it is trying to get away from its elite isolationist-NE reputation that it has. If you can, go to Argentina for a summer, take summer classes at some university there, and as an EC and weekend activity, do some uber volunteer work. That will also give more fuel for a essay.</p>