<p>Well this advice is pretty misleading. You should focus on outstanding AP’s and SATs and a decent GPA coupled with a national Olympiad (if you have the time to study), not forgetting a few ECs showing school involvement. Colleges look for what you are passionate about and what you do well in. You want to make yourself stand out but that doesn’t mean that the couple thousand kids who get into top tier schools are genius in its purest form. From this list there are plenty of options, but unless you are very determined and hard working, achieving everything on this list in nearly impossible (not to mention unnecessary).</p>