Okay as someone who didn’t have stellar grades yet somehow got into UC Davis, I’d say there are two ways to go about getting into the school you want to. Keep in mind that both types of people are needed, one for staying up there in school rankings, and the other for finding superstar specialists:
- What everyone does (the GPA / SAT rat race).
- Being interesting - do something that interests you, and focus on getting better every day. Find resources to help you get better, and find people that will help you succeed at said interest. Then do the best work you can and show that you progressively handled greater responsibility as you got better at something. For example, say you enjoy taking pictures (like every millenial, duh). Go buy a camera, or just use your iPhone camera, and try to take great pictures. Now this is key: get deep into it, like understanding shading/angle/exposure/etc. Then offer to take pictures for the community (ever heard of city center events? ) for free, and try to be a master at what you do. Then, when you apply to Cal/UCLA/Harvard/Stanford/Yale, the admissions person will see that you aren't some mindless drone that studied just because his parents told him to, AND that you are a real person with real interests.
So you pick and choose. #1 is what everyone will try to do, and #2, while it takes some soul searching, will yield much greater reward.