I guess I'll talk about my experiences with the college admissions process. I go to a magnet program for high school, so it's really hard getting into a good ivy or top college. We get a lot going into the ivies, and had a bunch of Yale, Cornell, Stanford, MIT, etc. I'll be posting this response as someone who did not get into ivies like that.
Just for the sake of context, my main "selling points" / stats would be: 2370 SAT, Debate Captain, Mock Trial Captain, 300 something? hours of community service, national merit finalist, 3.53/4.31 GPA (out of 4 and 5 respectively...D=), and attending this magnet program and the classes I've had the opportunity to take. This is pretty barebones, as every single high school senior has brainstormed lists of obscure shit to add to their apps--it's not wrong, everyone does it.
I got accepted to University of Maryland, Honors College (state school, with a 32,000 scholarship), Pennsylvania State Schreyer's Honors College, and Carnegie Mellon University. I got rejected from University of Pennsylvania (my ED school), Chicago University (I got deferred EA), and Johns Hopkins University. I'm waiting to see Columbia, but it's fucking stupid how unnecessarily complicated the procedure to see your scores is--and it's broken for fuck's sake. I'll let you know bojangles.
From my experiences, my own acceptances and rejections, my faults, and from watching my peers get into so many of these universities, here's my take on the "Dos and Don'ts" and my opinions or thoughts on some of the most important things.
1) It's a crapshoot. It sucks saying this, but going for a top college is honestly luck of the draw sometimes. Assuming you're another good student with good extracurriculars and scores etc....there are thousands of you. Even if you had the ability to get in to a school, and were "better" than someone else who got accepted, you might not necessarily get in. Keep in mind there are thousands of people fighting for every spot. Some may be better than you, and some might be worse. But the worse ones might get in, while you don't. It happens--it's unfortunate, but due to all of the factors that come together to make a single application, it's understandable. Don't beat yourself up or feel bad about yourself if you don't make a school. It's not necessarily your fault.
2) Race matters. This is the thing that I've come to realize the most through all of this, and it's really bugging me. One of my teachers, albeit in a joking way, pointed to one of the asian magnets and said "you're not getting in anywhere" and pointed to the black guy and said "you're getting in everywhere." We laughed--but he wasn't wrong. He proceeded to get into two top universities, even though all he had was a good GPA and nothing else. A lot of people who did so much more and were much more qualified did not. I'm not trying to say "he got into UPenn and I didn't because I'm Indian." I'm saying a black guy with a 3.9 GPA is more impressive than an asian guy with the same. This is unfortunately true.
3) Do not BS your SAT II's. It sucks but these matter too, more than you would think. You don't need to take like four or anything; the required two is fine. Just make sure you do well in them. I thought I was pretty set after I got my 800 in Math II. I didn't take another SAT II until my senior year of high school (I suck dick at science so I steered away from those) and I took the the Literature SAT II in my senior year. I thought I did really well but I got a 660 on it. Unfortunately, I didn't have any time to retake it and had to use that as the SAT II I sent in with my colleges. Yeah so that didn't work out too well for me, and I think it's a major reason I didn't get the acceptances I wanted. Leave yourself time to retake the SAT IIs (and the SAT I / ACT) if necessary. These are stupid, but important tests, and you don't want to leave yourself like me, crunched for time and having to accept a bad test score.
4) Teacher reqs don't matter too much. You can get the most beaming recommendation by your teachers, but unless they are to the point where your teacher is like "I would adopt this nigga if I could" they probably don't mean too much. Think about it. The only reason you go to a specific teacher for a recommendation is because you did well in that class, they like you, or they are a coach of a club you're in, or you have a specific relationship with them, right? How many thousands of letters do you think colleges get saying "He's a good kid. He does the work, he's trustworthy, he's nice, he's smart, I coach his baseball team so I know he's hardworking, etc" ? Pretty much they only matter if they don't suck. Colleges are mainly making sure they aren't bad; so they still matter, they just don't really help you. Unless you're like...god, and your teacher says something similar.
5) Senior year matters. Just because you're a senior doesn't mean you can take loaf classes and fail them all. Most universities ask for a midyear report, so they can see the classes you are taking and how you are doing in them. I have seen some of my last year's seniors get their acceptances into MIT or Yale or whatever revoked because they completely disregarded senior year. Don't fuck up.
6) Colleges like to be surprised. They're happier hearing about the Asian kid who's a nationally ranked athlete as opposed to the Asian kid who's been doing math competitions since he was three (obvious exception is if you're like winning competitions and are incredibly top class of course). If you surprise them--if you do something really cool, something people like you normally don't do, etc--they're more likely to remember your application and to bring it up when discussing. Hooks matter so much. Cool I'm an Indian who's a debate captain. HEY DID YOU SEE THAT BROWN GUY WHO IS THE CAPTAIN OF HIS SCHOOL'S VARSITY BASKETBALL TEAM???? That sort of thing matters a lot.
7) Resume pushing can help you. If you aren't one of those national ranked athletes or regional debate champion or something, you might want to start building yourself a good resume. Most people say it's best to develop a specific thing you're good at, or focus your interests and activities. That's what I do. My interests lie in law and psychology, my activities focus on those, etc. I didn't do so to develop a hook for college; I did so because that's where my interests naturally veered to. But I didn't have any debate achievements (my only achievements coming from my season this year, so it was too late for colleges to hear about them) nor was our mock trial team particularly good, so it didn't even mean all that much. One of my friends was in the same way. She's smart and hardworking, but didn't really have anything she was too good at. So she resume pushed the fuck out of everything. National Honor's societies, clubs, everything she could get a position of authority in. Bitch is going to MIT.
8) Take the most vigorous courses you can. This might seem obvious, but if you have the opportunity to take classes like I might have, or have a great AP program at your school--you just seem lazy if you don't take them. Colleges want to make sure you're doing the most work you can and that you're taking all of the opportunities you can. However, make sure you know your own strengths. I know I'm absolute ass at science, so I'm not taking them. Instead, I'm bulking up on Math, Computer Science, and Social Studies courses (Magnet / AP classes). If you know you can get an A or a B, you're just hurting yourself by not taking the harder courses. Plus the more difficult ones are just more interesting than shit like Photography 3.
9) Nobody else is going to root for you. You need to be the person who talks about his own strengths. You're the one that needs to show colleges how you're a candidate that they want. If you started a club at your school, really explain how you started it, where the idea came from, how you got members, how you advertised--the whole sch-bang. There's no one who's going to be making these connections for you, or who knows you enough to figure out what you've done. Keep a resume, and make a list of things you've done. Try and make connections that might not even be that strong. Paint a picture of yourself that's like a Greek God. Nobody in that admissions board knows you--nor will they verify that instead of "starting a club" you "created a club at school that focused on generating revenues to provide donations to various charities in a completely unique way." If you did cool shit, MAKE IT CLEAR.
10) Take the fucking money. Having high standards when it comes to college admissions is the worst. I would be lying if I didn't say earlier my senior year that "I don't want to go to the University of Maryland. It would be like I wasted my high school life going to that school." I had conversations like that a lot with friends who felt the same way. We worked hard, right? We deserve to go to an ivy league school, and are willing to pay through the nose to go there! That's not the best idea. Now I'm looking at my main decision and that's University of Maryland or Carnegie Mellon. On one side, I'm paying in state tuition and have a scholarship that basically pays my entire tuition for four years, along with enough AP credits to get out of an entire year. I don't have any of that at Carnegie Mellon. Instead of paying through the nose (66k a year about), I'm probably going to go to Maryland, as it's significantly cheaper. I've seen people turn down a full ride to CalTech just so they can go to MIT--and pay 100%. Think about your financial future.
11) Undergrad doesn't really matter that much. What gets you jobs and what means the most is grad school. It might be cool that you went to Harvard for four years, but if you suck at Harvard, or have thousands of dollars of debt...you're in for a tough time for grad school, which is what actually gets you your jobs. Don't fret that you're not getting an ivy league education. Do your best where you go and snag that 4.0, and then you might very well get an ivy league education in the future.
12) Lower your standards. There's nothing worse than that guy who says "I'M GOING TO PRINCETON STANFORD HARVARD OR YALE, AND I'M NOT APPLYING ANYWHERE ELSE." This is probably the most important thing I can recommend. Pick your safetys. Fuck, pick a safety safety. And pick schools that are good and you think you can get into. Then the tier higher than that. Then your dream schools. You might get ooohs and aaahs that your applications are going to the top universities, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't get in anywhere. Take this into account when you apply. Take into account price, location, and how likely you are to get in. Then apply to schools that you'll get money from and are sure you'll get into. You want to guarantee those four years--they get you into grad school. You don't want to come out with debt, or not get accepted anywhere. As I mentioned, I had those conversations like "I don't want to go to University of Maryland!" But I still applied, of course. In state tuition, and it's a pretty decent school. Would you look at that...I got in and am most likely going there. I could have made a list of "UPenn Brown Cornell Harvard Stanford Yale Princeton" but 0/7 doesn't guarantee a future for me.
These are many of the things I feel like I've learned about the admissions process. It might be unique due to the amazing people I'm surrounded by, and how inadequate I am compared to them. But these are the most important things in my opinion.
But seriously. Take the fucking money. That's what'll keep you secure for further education.