Thanks mithawk and I have PM’ed you.
Not to put too fine a point on things, I would leaven our understanding of holistic to include the context of “College admissions is best thought of as a game with hidden internal rules and intentionally vague public guidance.” and that “about half the class is admitted on much lower merit criteria.”
Having said that, various internal documents, some of which came out in the Harvard lawsuit that’s supposed to drop, confirm the internal rating system their admissions officers use.
For your reach school, and HYPSM is always a reach, note that those 5 generally have policies like “It is Stanford policy that, if you apply to Stanford with a decision plan of Restrictive Early Action, you may not apply to any other private college/university under their Early Action, Restrictive Early Action, Early Decision, or Early Notification plan.” Please read this closely
https://admission.stanford.edu/apply/first-year/decision_process.html Similarly, read into the details of the UC’s ELC policy. Even when California high schools say they don’t have class rank, they actually do, to participate in ELC.
I recommend Gail Post,
https://giftedchallenges.blogspot.com/2017/06/five-reasons-to-consider-elite-college.html and she has a ton of other helpful articles.
https://artofcollege.org/ 100+ 360° College campus tour videos
https://www.amazon.com/U-S-College-University-Reference-Map/dp/1593530749/ U.S. College and University Reference Map 7th edition
