I'm sorry, I realize this sounds like an incredibly stupid question. It's just that in high school, I knew about ~4-6 people who went on to the Ivy League for STEM fields—and in addition to science fair stuff—they all (1) founded or had a leadership role in youth-nonprofit thing, (2) recieved a ton of media coverage for a variety of reasons. Do these other factors also weigh into grad school decisions at all (and if so, to what extent)?
Thanks!