Is spike absolutely necessary for Stanford/Harvard/Ivys?

NiceUnparticularMan
Wed, 11 Dec 2024 12:21:53 +0000

Yes, this article from MIT remains some of the most useful framing I have ever seen:

MIT Admissions

Applying Sideways | MIT Admissions

How to get in to MIT.

It sounds to me like the OP’s kid actually did follow the advice as to activities in that article, but that is then leading up to this:

But what if you don’t get into MIT?

Well, you may be disappointed. But you learned everything you could, so now you’re smarter; you were a positive member of your community, and you made people happy; and you spent high school doing not what you thought you had to do to get into a selective college, but what you wanted to do more than anything else in the world. In other words, you didn’t waste a single solitary second of your time.

Applying sideways, as a mantra, means don’t do things because you think they will help you get into MIT (or Harvard, or CalTech, or anywhere). Instead, you should study hard, be nice, and pursue your passion, because then you will have spent high school doing all the rights things, and, as a complete side effect, you’ll be cast in the best light possible for competitive college admissions.

I’ll just add that although some kids may not see it yet, soon enough they will learn that much more important than the specific college you attend is how well you do, the choices you make, the experiences you have, the opportunities you make the most of.

Kids who have followed the sort of path we are describing in HS are very well-prepared to do it all again in college. And that preparation is itself well worth the effort.