Admissions Spikes

[Anonymous]

Agree, I would not game this.

But I'd review a pdf of your kid's common app for a reach that has multiple supp essays.

Do you get a good multi-layered sense of who your kid is? What their varied and different academic interests (and hopefully passions) are?

If its repetitive or doesn't really show much depth, give your kid more detailed help or feedback.

I think most kids have these types of layered interests. They actually don't know (1) they are supposed to showcase all of this and (2) how to subtly connect or showcase them in a way that makes sense.

Another set of eyes can help. Especially if your school's college counselor isn't helping.

[Anonymous]

Don't forget that the application is a sales pitch -- what can your kid provide in the application that will convince the admissions officers that kid is likely to be a low-risk, high-reward.

The people reading the applications are NOT professors. They are usually mid-late 20s AO. With limited time, limited information, and imperfect humans making the decisions, it means that otherwise great applicants might simply be rejected through no fault of their own.

Appeal to that admissions rep.

[Anonymous]

I’m so glad I came of age during the late 80’s/early 90’s. Attended independent college prep school in the Midwest that sent a decent number of students to Ivies and SLAC’s. Affluent community with all the advantages. And we weren’t worried about spikes or hooks or strategies for ED or test optional. Felt sorry for my kid and kid’s classmates when they went through the process last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My senior has one - combo of sport and academic area. Unusual. Developed on own with a teacher’s mentorship.

Have an 8th grader and now I see everything differently - can already see what that younger kid’s spike will be - or at least directionally based on interests.

It’s funny how once you go down this road, you start to see everything so differently

So your whole family is “spikey”?

They are being placed in a mold to appear spikey. Years ago.

COVID family

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't try to game this. The kid should go with their interests. I was admitted everywhere I applied years ago (including more than 1 in HYPSM group). At the time, I thought I was well rounded, and I was. But looking back now, I also had a really unique spike that I didn't even recognize the significance of at the time. I guess the Admissions officers did. The spike turned into a lifelong passion. It's now my career and my volunteer work.

Lesson: you can't make this stuff up. It has to be genuine.

Wait, you didn't fake a spike so it's not possible to fake a spike?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some random common ones that I’ve seen at our kids school:

Aerospace engineering, or something to do with aerospace, combined with history, (military war history in particular) and HS research projects involved with aircraft involved in modern warfare (+ pilots license)

Writer (published) and historian also focused on great Jewish books and Jewish history, merging literature, history, and Jewish studies as a major (research project in Israel and Europe on “how the Jews became white”)

Literature and Asian studies, focused on writing poems and haiku’s and other literature and entering it into award-winning journals (TASP attendee)

Classics and archeology major, involved with ancient coin collecting and archaeology. Research projects and docent at various history museums (plus linguistics minor).

Arabic and women’s studies or International relations. All American blonde who was born in the US but moved to Dubai with her family for 10 years and is fluent in Arabic and has done research projects on evolving female identity and social movements in Middle East countries as an observer.

Obviously, there’s way more extracurriculars to each of these spikes, but this is what I remember off the top of my head.
There are so many more!

These are interests for fully developed college students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't try to game this. The kid should go with their interests. I was admitted everywhere I applied years ago (including more than 1 in HYPSM group). At the time, I thought I was well rounded, and I was. But looking back now, I also had a really unique spike that I didn't even recognize the significance of at the time. I guess the Admissions officers did. The spike turned into a lifelong passion. It's now my career and my volunteer work.

Lesson: you can't make this stuff up. It has to be genuine.

Wait, you didn't fake a spike so it's not possible to fake a spike?

In face you CAN make this up. Many people do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some random common ones that I’ve seen at our kids school:

Aerospace engineering, or something to do with aerospace, combined with history, (military war history in particular) and HS research projects involved with aircraft involved in modern warfare (+ pilots license)

Writer (published) and historian also focused on great Jewish books and Jewish history, merging literature, history, and Jewish studies as a major (research project in Israel and Europe on “how the Jews became white”)

Literature and Asian studies, focused on writing poems and haiku’s and other literature and entering it into award-winning journals (TASP attendee)

Classics and archeology major, involved with ancient coin collecting and archaeology. Research projects and docent at various history museums (plus linguistics minor).

Arabic and women’s studies or International relations. All American blonde who was born in the US but moved to Dubai with her family for 10 years and is fluent in Arabic and has done research projects on evolving female identity and social movements in Middle East countries as an observer.

Obviously, there’s way more extracurriculars to each of these spikes, but this is what I remember off the top of my head.
There are so many more!

These are interests for fully developed college students.

Yes. Which is why these high school candidates are especially low-risk admits - they’re already operating as fully developed college students. (To me, it’s analogous to choosing senior associates to make partner. Those who are already operating as fully developed partners are most attractive.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's the most unique spike you've heard of? It appears most of them are humanities-focused? Or is that a wrong assessment?

If you think of a spike (whether other people agree or not), think through how feasible is it for a high schooler to develop it. Suggest Digital Humanities.

[Anonymous]

Classics. It's all about Classics. Latin 5. Certamen competition. Gets kids from our HS into Harvard and Yale every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't try to game this. The kid should go with their interests. I was admitted everywhere I applied years ago (including more than 1 in HYPSM group). At the time, I thought I was well rounded, and I was. But looking back now, I also had a really unique spike that I didn't even recognize the significance of at the time. I guess the Admissions officers did. The spike turned into a lifelong passion. It's now my career and my volunteer work.

Lesson: you can't make this stuff up. It has to be genuine.

Wait, you didn't fake a spike so it's not possible to fake a spike?

PP here, personally I think they can tell you're faking. But even if not, then what, your kid gets into a school they don't belong because their parents forced them into something. And the kid is miserable for years doing something they didn't want to do. Doesn't seem like a great idea to me. And yes I saw a lot of mental health issues at HYP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Classics. It's all about Classics. Latin 5. Certamen competition. Gets kids from our HS into Harvard and Yale every year.

Boring.

[Anonymous]

Which top colleges care most about spikes? I assume schools like Yale and Brown don't like spikes bc of their essential core philosophies?
What about Duke? Harvard? Dartmouth? Stanford? Northwestern? Penn? Vanderbilt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can figure out which schools want spikey kids - they tend to be colleges with lengthy apps (lots of supplements). So, Ivies, and schools like Northwestern (3 supps) right?

Schools that don't have a lot of supps (or not super involved), are generally focused first and foremost on stats, history of how kids perform from your HS and space in college/major (perhaps a school like Vanderbilt?)

Is this true????

[Anonymous]

My kid didn’t have a spike. Very well rounded ECs. I was nervous because we started hearing that being well rounded is undesirable. Kid (from overrepresented area) ended up being accepted to all of HYPSM (applied as a STEM major) in RD.