OP: we went to one of those “how admissions works” workshops last night. It was interesting. They did 3 votes for admission: one after just GPA/sat, one after that plus ECs and a final one after those plus “personal qualities”. Of course the highest first vote was different than the end, though one candidate seemed to “have it all”.
What I found odd was the “actual” result, from which I deduced that if your rec calls you a “modern day (fill in the blank)”, they were undully impressed IMO. For my choice, I picked a “steady high performing, lately maturing a lot and good critical thinker” over the low GPA/SAT “renaissance man” and a high scoring girl who wrote a list of her likes, including black nail polish and pretty blue hydrangeas!
While I could see what they were looking at holistically, I will say it left me scratching my head a bit at their choices! So after all that, I suppose it is not just scores, but scores plus, Plus what? Who knows? Likely different for each school.
Thank you @fallenchemist