If you’re chasing the big named scholarships, take the time to really analyze what the schools are looking for. Some share detailed bios of semi-finalists/finalists. Great stats and solid ECs are not enough…they are really looking for activists, change agents, and other students with high profile activities and awards.
I feel like we went down a bit of a rabbit hole chasing competitive full ride scholarships. If I had done more research, I might have allowed her to apply to her dream school EA even though the EFC would be a huge stretch for us. I know she would love to have an answer - seems like the wait for RD is never-ending!!