Admission staffers don’t always get the whole picture. My D who I wrote about in an earlier post (average excellent) student suffers from a chronic condition called dysautonomia. It comes with all the joys of obscured vision, chronic stomach issues, exhaustion, head aches, dizziness etc. There is no cure and outside of a high sodium diet not much she can do but cope. This started in grade 4. In her entire life she has gotten 1 B+. Everything else was an A even in the year she missed close to a month of school even while taking the most challenging curriculum that is offered. . As a result her ECs (by some standards impressive) will not likely help with an Ivy admission. She has been advised by many that mentioning the disorder on an application would hurt instead of help. Anyone who can achieve what she has with the limitations she has is almost super human. An admission person will never know the challenges she has faced. There are lots of kids out there with similar challenges, that go unrecognized, unknown.