Reflection #3: Focus on one “spike”, rather than many plateaus. Son was extremely busy practicing for two varsity sports, holding on to 4.0 GPA, and volunteering. He did not have time to do research or participate in Math/Science competitions. In the end, his sport skills were not good enough to hook him into a Reach school, and the lack of STEM research/competition really hurts admission chances as well. It’s better to pick one sport or one STEM competition and stick to it, making it a real spike.