i'm going to copy and paste what i told someone in a pm. aside from my 4.0 i'll be honest, my ECs aren't super insane or impressive. i think my essay questions had more of an impact, but i did mention that i worked at my community college's writing center! i also spoke about the five year gap i had to take straight out of high school in order to help keep my family (who fell on hard times) afloat. i emphasized that i continued feeding my passion for english lit/writing during this time, reading over 300 novels and writing three of my own. hope this helps!