so much for positions as they are uniqueness. for Instance, being the lead in the school play and captain of the swim team wouldn’t carry as much weight as say starting a successful business or holding a job that is absolutely unique. After all, admissions has no way of knowing if being the lead was a huge deal or if the kid was just the only one who auditioned. Whereas if the kid say started a business that he ended up selling for $500,000. That would get him in.

I don’t know if this is true, but it might have worked for me. My scores were pretty much exactly average (in 2007 when I applied) the essay topic was basically explain why you are unique. I wrote that I was guaranteed to be the only person in the class that was elected keeper of the gnome multiple times and then I went on to explain what that was. (Our school had a gnome that was important and was intrusted to one person each year. Being picked as the keeper was no small thing). Anyway, sounds stupid, but it was something unique.