I’m responding to an old post so maybe the OP doesn’t care anymore – in fact, I hope that he has moved on and is thoroughly enjoying his new life at UCB! Go, Bears!!!
But for anyone else still interested…I found reading the Gatekeepers to be key in helping me to understand that at the HYPMSs of the world, high stats just gets you TO the gate. But to get you THROUGH the gate, you need something more that makes you stand out. An international, national, or several state awards can get you THROUGH the gate. Overcoming extreme hardship as a URM or first gen going to college can also make you stand out. Clearly the OP’s high stats got him TO the gate, as evidenced by the high number of deferrals and waitlists that he got on to…thus showing that each of those schools had no doubt that he could fit in and do the work.
But what did he add to the school class that was so much more compelling than all of the other thousands of apps? In the end, he didn’t have enough sparkliness to make him stand out above all of the others to make it THROUGH the gate.
Also, when I read his “app” in post #1, I don’t get a sense of “oh, he’s a (this)”. When the AdComs are casting their play, say the wizard of oz, they will be delighted when they recognize a witch, a scarecrow, a tin man, a wizard, or a perfect Dorothy. When I read the OP’s app, I saw a lot of stuff, but not a sure sense of direction (as also evidenced by his college list).
OP, were you more interested in “sweeping” a list of highly prestigious colleges – or did you show a lot of love to one, or a few, colleges that you really knew and loved? My impression is that you may not have shown much love to any of them.
TL;DR – All of this is to say, I don’t think that you did anything wrong. It’s just a highly competitive arena that you threw your ring into. And at that elite level, high stats just gets you to the gate. Lots of ECs won’t get you through the gate. Hooks will. A high level of verifiable accomplishment (preferably national level) in a particular EC probably would (assuming there are no flaws in the rest of your app). Or extreme hardship. Or an accomplishment that is difficult to picture – the kind that makes you stop and say, huh, how did a high school student manage to do that? (Someone wrote a book about this). After that, to fill up the few remaining seats from a vast pool of applicants that look nearly identical, maybe a sparkly, memorable AND (something extremely unusual, but not necessarily important, about you) might get you lucky and tip you in. Or raving LORs, scintillating essays, or a glowing interview. Plus ED or SCEA’ing to show that they’re your one true love (out of the 19 other colleges that you were also wooing).