Is spike absolutely necessary for Stanford/Harvard/Ivys?

parentologist
Wed, 11 Dec 2024 12:58:04 +0000

This was my kid’s experience, that the spike (music) mattered more than anything else. But it was something at which kid had excelled since third grade, that only became more and more intense, due to kid’s love of it. Still, kid played town sports until high school, and also played backyard sports and video games with friends - it wasn’t only the spike. But did pretty much no non-music high school activities. Virtually all honors and APs to the max, but not to the level of achievement that your kid has shown.

At their tippy-top, I would say that virtually everyone kid has met has shown extremely high “spikey” achievement in at least one area, above and beyond excellent academic achievement overall. I do recognize some legacies who seem less brilliant than the others, although still nothing to sneer at, and kid says that some of the athletic recruits are at a different intellectual level. There are very few well-rounded high achievers, without a particular spike in achievement.

When kid saw their admissions file, I think that what stood out most to them was consistent high achievement under adverse circumstances (severe and challenging family illness plus pandemic issues), plus the extraordinary spike achievement. All evaluators said they wanted feedback from the interviewer. All noted the high spike achievement. And it was in something that the school wanted. We don’t know how other schools would have gone, because kid took the ED/EA to the tippy top and didn’t bother submitting the other apps.

At this point, your son has the very high achievement that is the “base” that the top schools want. He could still set himself apart in his essay. And if he did his ECs well, because he genuinely wanted to do those things, that should come across, too.