I concur with the sentiment above that demonstrating a single passion and explaining it well in your essay(s) is of critical importance, as is the Why ____? explanation. Explain why you are applying to Emory, USC, etc. What specifically about the individual schools and its offerings attract you. Moreover, what specifically or potentially uniquely do you bring to that college or university. With the total # of applicants soaring, you need to find a way to stand out in a crowded field of quality applicants. And that reason or rationale for accepting you cannot these days be simply quantifiable in terms of grades or test scores. They want it to be told to them more specifically and intimately via your personal statement(s) and/or demonstrated via your background, leadership experience, ECs, etc.
Chance Me threads have become fairly pointless. These days it is simply too hard to predict outcomes, especially when you are dealing with any of the colleges or universities deemed elite or say Top-25 / Top-30.
In 2017, my younger daughter was admitted to Princeton, Emory, Rice, UTexas and USC while also being rejected by UVa, Northwestern, Yale, Brown, Stanford, Vanderbilt and Duke. She went 8 and 7 overall, but we clearly would have guessed admissions to UVa, Duke, Northwestern or Vanderbilt and a rejection from Princeton versus the other way around. It just shows that you can never tell or predict. It also demonstrates the need for applying to many and having a good mix between reach, match and safety schools. And if the school is Top-30, its by definition not a match.
Those schools are reaches for everyone simply because of all the potential variables at play. Ultimately, my daughter narrowed her top 3 down to USC, Emory and Princeton, but then chose USC (where her big sister already was).
@ljberkow @bernie12 What I meant by the #s is this… over the last few cycle’s, USC has turned down 3K+ applicants with 4.0 unweighted GPAs and test scores in the 99th percentile. With 65K applicants, and an admit rate now of only 13% or so, they are forced to turn down tens of thousands of stellar applicants who are then baffled that they did not get in. Most likely considered USC a match school incorrectly. USC, for example, chose to turn away more kids with nearly perfect stats than Princeton even admits overall (3K+ vs only 1,990). USC could of course choose to only admit kids with top stats, but they are instead looking to craft a diverse and well-rounded freshman class. Both of my daughters chose to attend USC. Whatever the old perceptions of USC may be, that is clearly not the USC that I know well now. Over the last decade, they have changed dramatically from what they once were.
Good luck to all of those in the upcoming admission cycle… and especially those trying to gain admission to Emory. It is a great school.