I know for a fact Boy's State gives points. I can't say for sure about AIM. That said, the AOs take note of every contact a potential candidate has with the Academy. I'm not sure how exactly that gets worked into the formula, but it's something that I'm fairly sure is unique to USCGA worth taking note of.
I’ve seen honor platoon be mentioned a few times, what is it? I’m guessing it’s a good rank above everyone else, but how does one qualify, do the cadre pick or is it based off standards like PFE and other tests?
Honor platoon is for the platoon as a whole, basically the overall top performing platoon. It's scored across three domains, physical, military, and academic, so they'll take collective PFE scores, drill scores, and your indoc test to determine who did the best overall. For your purposes it's pretty much arbitrary. It's satisfying to know you were a part of the honor platoon, but it's not something that'll be looked at much since it's a collective effort. There is recognition for the top performing AIMsters, graded from the same metrics. Leadership and being a key part of that honor platoon matters a lot for your evaluation, but that's more subjective and what the cadre are seeing from your performance rather than a number ranking. For example if they see you helping your shipmates with indoc, or supporting people during the PFE, or helping people in general, that would be positively reflected. Basically just be a good person. But also make sure you're doing your best on the measurable parts since those don't leave anything to question.