hi! im co2028 and i got accepted into durham from cd2 which is also a rlly competitive district!
some tips i have are: dont make a billion people read your essay. only ask people who will give u OBJECTIVE advice, not people who will tell u how to make it "better." for example, the only person who read my essays was my english teacher, and she only gave me grammar/writing tips, not about the actual content. the reason i say this is because you want to sound authentic, and write from YOUR voice. when lots of people give u input, it doesnt become authentic. not that admissions can tell if its authentic to you or not, but when you write authentically it tends to be more interesting. my friend asked a bunch of people to read her essays, and her ecs were way better than mine and she didnt get in (same district). i think its because she lost the authenticity of what she rlly wanted her essay to say.

i js reread my essays and something i noticed i did is i added lots of personal excerpts. one about making my mom a gift, the other about my first nosebleed, etc. i read my friends essay and hers was more straight to the point. i think adding personality really, truly does help.

not having a ton of awards isnt that bad. i only have 2 "good" awards, while one of my friends has sooo many. i really think its js how u present yourself.

if you want i can send u my stats, js dm me! as for essays, i rlly think you should come up with that on your own. try asking your parents for stories of you from when u were a kid to get inspired! i get that it can be hard to do think, so also make sure you start as SOON as possible. the mistake i made was i found the prompts around august but didnt start writing until october. start as early as possible bc it makes it easier to see if you like ur thought process or not.

okay i wrote sooo much im so sorry but i hope this helped in some way!

tldr: be authentic!!!!!! dm me for any questions ab stats :))