You’re not going to have a higher GPA or test scores than every other applicant who applies to college—GPAs and test scores only go so high. You won’t have more community service hours, a longer list of awards, or better recommendations than everyone else. As important as those things may be, comparing yourself to everyone else is a demoralizing exercise. You can’t best everyone else.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t be the best at something. Instead of comparing yourself to everyone else, make your world smaller.
I once worked with a student who loved Civil War history. He asked his AP US teacher to recommend some outside reading he could do. He forced his family to visit every battlefield they could. He took classes at a local community college during the summer to learn more. He may not have known more about the Civil War than every other kid who applied to college, but at his school, in his AP US class, he was the best at taking an interest in the Civil War to a reasonable and productive extreme. Today, he’s a Yale graduate attending Georgetown Law School.
Another student worked at a hamburger stand and wrote an essay claiming that he made the best burger in a 100-mile radius. He got in to nearly every college he applied to.
And another student wrote about being the slowest runner on the cross country team, but also well known for making the best pasta for the team carbo-load dinners.
Maybe you’re the best positive influence on your football team that’s lost your last 11 games in a row.
Maybe you’re the best at teaching little kids in your karate class to break boards and love doing it.
Maybe you help new writers for the paper, new musicians for the orchestra, or new actors for the school play feel at home.
If you want to stand out and be the best at something, make your world smaller. Don’t compare yourself to the rest of the applicant pool. Instead, look at what you enjoy and are good at, and find ways to develop your greatness in that (small) world.