How to create a “spike”

[Anonymous]

What is your kid passionate about? What would they do when no one is looking around? If given two weeks or two months with no supervision, how would they fill their time?

The answers to these questions will tell you a lot.

[Anonymous]

Computational musicology as an EC? What am I even reading here? Just let your kid have multiple interests rather than trying to fashion some pseudo-spikey Frankenstein extracurricular. My goodness!

*and nobody said your child had to give up on their dream. But, please, let them live their own dreams rather than trying to create your dreams through them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Google "MIT applying sideways".

Your welcome

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is she most excited about?

Finally, someone nice. Thank you. She is passionate about music, STEM (particularly math), and writing. Like I said, not very concentrated. She excels most at math ubut plays her instrument at a high level. Is there a way to connect or narrow down these disciplines?

Take a look at this.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/s/O1LnN8YvTk

I’d also suggest looking at reaches like the below given music/STEM:

CMU, Michigan, Rice, USC, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Yale, NYU, UT-Austin, JHU.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's crazy or gross to think about it freshman year. College admissions is a process so it makes sense to approach it as such. Nothing wrong with her figuring out schools she might want to target, and then trying to make herself as attractive a candidate as possible. And hopefully do this without driving yourselves crazy.

My daughter laid out her interests and strengths in columns in a way that made sense to her -- your daughter might say "music, math, writing" or maybe she'd say something else that hadn't even occurred to you. Then drop her ECs into the columns if they fit, or make new columns. It might then be obvious where there might be more depth, or where she could add activities -- because despite what people here say, she does have some time.

I don't have a musician, so I'm flying a bit blind here, but say she wanted to flesh that area out a bit -- but isn't going to be performing at Lincoln Center. Can she volunteer as an usher? Washington Chamber Orchestra, Kennedy Center, something like that...? Then sustain that for a while, don't just do it for a month.

Good luck to her!

[Anonymous]

According to this, with lots of spray and heat:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/c69D6jB3CNQ?feature=share

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is a freshman who has always been “well rounded”- does a few ECs well, but not exceptionally so (I.e. at a national level). However, we are aiming for T20s and I’ve heard that to get in without a hook, students need a “spike”.

If this is true, how should we get around this? Should we focus on one EC and drop the others? Should we tie them together to create a strange niche?

Thanks.

Your DC needs to focus on the subjects they are interested in and look for schools that offer great programs in those interests.

[Anonymous]

this is funny - folks are now just making things up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a problem with "We".

But you cannot create a spike where there isn't one, OP, not at the end of 9th grade. If she chooses to focus intensively on one aspect of her life, and ends up in the fall of 12th grade with several pieces of evidence that she has progressed to at least a regional, if not national or international level, then great! But how likely is it?

Most kids with a splinter skill were preparing for it, whether they knew it or not, years before high school. They had the conditioning to go far in their sports, or the music background to win major competitions, or the STEM knowledge to do well in Robotics or Math or Science events.

Also, schools ranked 30-50 are as selective now as higher-ranked schools used to be a few years ago.

So don't even think about T20. Think about building the best possible profile to open as many doors as possible. Maybe it will be a lower-ranked school, with merit aid and a nice Honors dorm. If that happens, you should be happy.

What is a “splinter skill”?

“Spike” . “Splinter”. It all seems very painful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can't invent their passion

Pretty sure most of the Ivy admits invented their passions, or their parents, or their expensive college counselor from NY whom they hired in upper elementary did

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is your kid passionate about? What would they do when no one is looking around? If given two weeks or two months with no supervision, how would they fill their time?

The answers to these questions will tell you a lot.

Answer these questions. Then we can supply ideas. Or a good college counselor can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can't invent their passion

Pretty sure most of the Ivy admits invented their passions, or their parents, or their expensive college counselor from NY whom they hired in upper elementary did

Nope. We are squarely middle class and couldn't afford a counselor. Both at Ivies with multiple T10 admits. I shared my love/knowledge of arts, helped brainstorm on activities, and acted as chaffeur. There were things my kids couldn't pursue because we just couldn't afford it. There were times when I said that if they wanted to stick with something, they needed to make more of an effort practicing if we were paying for pricey lessons (and getting a discount from the teacher), but that they didn't need to stick with it if they didn't want to. I gave them ideas on how to take their talents out of the box a little, but they chose what they wanted to pursue.

[Anonymous]

A job.

Keep a job for 2-3 years.

[Anonymous]

I honestly think many of the responses here are unduly harsh. Yes - it’s very hard to get into a top 20 school and yes there are kids who get in w lots of backgrounds and yes it has to come from kid. That said, all the time, people do try to solve for what colleges are looking for - some hire counselors to help frame this narrative really early in high school. We aren’t doing it but it happens.

What I would say is this. It does seem like back in my day, top colleges took kids who were just in a bunch of ECs and maybe won some leadership role at the end. Now they seem to directly prefer some passion - whether it be sports or music or whatever else. Yes - you can’t decide at 15 to become a national violinist but if music is your passion, you can emphasize that a bit more or try to do a summer job around that or teach a lesson or take an outside class. In other words, in a world of limited hours, you can focus on what you love. And if you are doing gobs of activities for ‘college’ you can drop the ones you don’t like bc racking them up doesn’t seem to help anyway. Mostly the more kids spend time on what they enjoy, the more they’ll thrive.

[Anonymous]

What is a spike? Did you just invent this term?