@Lindagaf Indeed. It was hard work and time consuming for her… and expensive for me.
She was pre-warned though early on by a Yale admissions rep who told her that in this current climate the two groups that have it worse are: 1) overachieving and highly-qualified Asians or even Asian-Americans of both genders and 2) overachieving and highly-qualified white unhooked female applicants. Apparently, there are just way too many of each categories applying these days. She told her that this could be alleviated some if you are from the right state or right area - as geographical diversity could help. In my daughter’s case, being from one of the 4 most populated states was an extra negative.
Years ago… things were very different. It was not a huge disadvantage being Asian, as their application #s were not so high then. And back then, being an overachieving and highly-qualified white unhooked male applicant was a disadvantage.
Finding a hook of course can help any applicant.
It apparently all relates back to the goal of creating a diverse and well-rounded freshman class. Colleges, especially elite colleges receiving tens of thousands of applications, can only accept so many of each category. That Yale adcom rep joked that it is too bad my daughter does not live in Idaho. Oh well…
Here are a couple of the articles written online about it that we discovered after the fact…
http://gawker.com/5899638/being-a-white-girl-no-longer-the-great-hook-it-once-was
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/04/smart-white-girls-college-admissions.html
My point to the OP is simple… research, visit schools, choose wisely… but also play it safe. There are no guarantees in this process. It is better to be safe than sorry. College admissions have certainly become a combat sport lately 
lol