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.

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?)

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Do you mean like the bogus non-profits? I think most spikes are STEM focused like CS kids with apps and coding in GitHub.

No. it's about an interdisciplinary connection. Multiple aspects of you - not just STEM. STEM makes you pointy. But that's not enough to be memorable.

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?

https://www.tiktok.com/discover/college-application-spike-example

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?

Do you mean like the bogus non-profits? I think most spikes are STEM focused like CS kids with apps and coding in GitHub.

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.

With a little bit of planning, everyone can be spiky

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!

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.

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”?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What the heck is a humanities spike?! Are there really humanities activities that are that unique and unusual?!

Yes there are.

Elaborate, please.

Anonymous wrote:What the heck is a humanities spike?! Are there really humanities activities that are that unique and unusual?!

Yes there are.

What the heck is a humanities spike?! Are there really humanities activities that are that unique and unusual?!

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

Don't try to manufacture a spike. If there isn't one, there isn't one. Not every student at a T20 has a spike.

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