<p>I agree with @arwarw. One thing I am convinced about, having been through this process twice (older kid is at a top 10 LAC - if you go by USNWR rankings that is) - the admissions people are very good at what they do. They are looking for kids that will fit into their college, and they look at all aspects of the application to try to find out all they can about him or her. My kids did not play sports, participate in music or drama, had public school education their entire lives (very large public HS). Nothing available to them such as Robotics clubs, Intel competitions, internships, etc. Very few kids from their school even apply to out of state colleges, much less places like Brown, yet they were both essentially plucked from obscurity to two of the top colleges in the nation. I think the key thing to do is just try to be yourself in your application as much as you can, pick good recommenders, and leave it up to the admission committee to see the whole person.</p>