As someone who has sat on a lot of admissions committees, a national scholarship committee, and tons of search committees, I can tell you that in a competitive pool there is typically no single profile that will get a candidate selected once they have made it past the original cut (typically, you have to have some minimum credentials to even get a serious look in most pools). The key is to be able to catch the committee or the reviewer's eye by distinguishing your record or your application from the pile. Recommendations can be a crucial input into this process--make sure that your referees know you well and can express that knowledge in your letters. In addition, if there are any potential red flags in your record, make sure that they get addressed somewhere in your application packet (e.g., one applicant explained her dip in senior year grades to us by telling us that her fiance was murdered at a party they were attending during her senior year, and enclosed documentation of these tragic events and the her difficulty in coping with them--in the absence of such an explanation, an otherwise good record could have been lost to a "senioritis" diagnosis). Finally, if 127 out of 128 students are admitted with your GPA/SAT combo the previous year, remember that does not in any way assure you admission. Good luck!!!