How to make my college applications more impressive?

For college admissions, how do you make sure that you stand out?

• Three questions: How do you be more social in class? How do you make yourself stand out when it comes to college applications? I play the piano for our orchestra, does that help? What do you need to do to make sure the teacher writes good recommendations? I'm talking about what will look good, what will impress them. not bribing them or something lol

• Answer:

  Most people applying to colleges play a sport, or an instrument, or are involved in clubs. And that's great, but it's not very unique. While it's fine for most colleges, if you're trying to make yourself stand out for a top school, it's better if you have a bit more. I wanted to be an astronomer, so I had gotten involved in amateur astronomy long before college - joining clubs, going to national meetings, teaching astronomy at college summer camps. That helped my application a lot - although it almost didn't occur to me to even mention it on my application; 10 years ago when I was applying no one really put a lot of emphasis on that kind of thing.