text: Stress leadership.  Stress initiative.  Stress your individualism.  Write concisely, and for God's sakes don't make spelling or grammatical mistakes!  Don't spend too much time touting your academic achievements, unless they apply to your initiative and leadership (they can see your grades elsewhere).\n\nThey want to know you will succeed in College.  And unlike high school, College is not some mandatory thing you have to go to (or, conversely, are entitled to) and the reviewers know it.  The top schools are looking for kids who will work their butts off, who have a proven record of working their butts off, and who will continue to work their butts off to make the world a better place in the future.  Who really has the potential to be the next leaders?  Who will use school for what it is - a stepping stone to greatness - rather than an end in itself?  \n\nIf you take the attitude school is an end in itself, not part of a greater future, you diminish your chances.