College advisers always say you need a spike, and for T10 you need an EC outside of school that includes a national level achievement. Are there circumstances where a high level of achievement across a lot of ECs is a strategy? Asking for my son who is a great rock, jazz and classical musician; plays volleyball and rugby to a high standard; edits the student newspaper; student council; ethics Olympiad; solid teaching record for under-privileged kids… it’s a lot! (Hopefully he cuts back a bit to ace his IBDP).
Do advisors always say that ? You’d hear different things from different people.
Plenty of unhooked go to top schools - they have money - a great hook.
What your son has done, that he enjoys, is a strategy. That he is authentic and not forced is what matters. Forcing too many things mean he likely can’t be committed to any. Tenure and depth matter.
You apply to schools of interest and maybe you get in, most likely you don’t at that level.
Many posters will recommend you read the old MIT applying sideways blog. It’s the anti of what you are stating.
Whether Harvard or Hofstra, your son’s future will depend on him.
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Most people applying even to T 10 colleges do not have a “spike”. They have ECs that show commitment and things they enjoy.
If you don’t get accepted to a T 10 college, you will never know why, but it probably won’t be because you don’t have a spike as you define it.
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Sure. What matters is commitment and depth in his activities. If he has been involved in these activities for a few years and is able to commit substantial time and effort to them, then great. The problem arises when students present a laundry list of activities in which they’ve only had superficial involvement. That would be a negative. But if he’s shown commitment and achievement in multiple activities, there’s nothing wrong with that.
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At need blind schools, simply having money isn’t a hook.
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Technically you are correct but look at the demographics of who applies because of the expense.
Even need blind schools are loaded with the wealthy.
Some kids don’t apply due to the cost.at Brown, as one example, over half are full pay.
Having money gives you a confidence to even apply whereas many who are not of that livelihood don’t even truly have the resources (non financial) to even consider these types.
That’s why I note it as a hook but technically you are correct.
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I’ll assume all future responses will be in response to the OP and won’t go into off-topic conversations including, but not limited to, “Is need-blind really need-blind?”
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I have heard admissions officers say that they look to create a well rounded class – that class will include individuals with various spikes along with well-rounded individuals.
I’d encourage your son to keep doing the things he loves. If anything, it sounds to me like he could be considered to have multiple spikes.
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It sounds like your son is doing great. If he can find a synergetic way to combine a couple of these into something that shows additional initiative and creativity, it could be a great way to strengthen the application further. Just don’t let him start any non-profits or do pay-to-play research with a professor 
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I am not sure what college counselors say. We never used one.
I do know what at least some people who actually attended “top 10” universities say. At least the people that I know who attended “top 10” universities agree with the general theme of the “applying sideways” blog that @tsbna44 referenced above. As I understand it, it recommends that you do what is right for you, do it well, and treat people well. Of course very strong academics is assumed for anyone applying to a highly ranked college or university.
To me it sounds like your son is doing what he feels is right for him.
It is hard to be at the “top of the game” in two or three ECs, plus classes. There is some limit for each of us.
One daughter was like your son a very good musician. Eventually she needed to neglect her music to focus on other issues, such as academics. This happens. We each need to prioritize. I expect that the music will probably come back, but it has been a while.
I think that your son should keep doing what is right for him. In a similar situation I would be very open to having a child drop back to doing slightly fewer things if they felt that they need to do so. Otherwise I would not worry about it.
The other thing that comes to mind is that there are a lot of very good colleges and universities. I would not focus on “Top 10” schools, but rather on finding schools that are a good fit for the student.
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I teach high school in Texas. In the recent three years, there are more than 10 students I know who have been accepted to Ivies and Ivey+ schools. Most of them have national awards in one EC and at least state awards in a different area EC, such as music + math, music + robotics, music + sports, CS + debate, math + chess, STEM + sports, etc. One exception was a student who excelled in math and conducted long-term community services applying math knowledge.
My samples are skewed because I teach CS, volunteer for robotics, and have musician kids, so I see quite some students in these areas at very high levels.
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I’ve heard this called being a “spikey wheel” (I believe usually somewhat jokingly).
Most importantly, I have heard AOs say the same things about admitting a mix of spikey kids, well-rounded kids, spikey wheel kids, and so on. The idea they only want single-spike kids is usually described as a myth.
I think part of what is going on is that the most selective colleges do sometimes talk about kids “standing out” to them, the idea being they get so many generally well-qualified applicants, when they decide who they want to add to their college community, they are looking for kids who stood out in a way they could see making a strong contribution to that community.
But then some people translate that into needing some one type of activity–some people will even say it has to be related to your intended major–in which you have a lot of awards or other “impressive” achievements. And sometimes that might be it, but way more often than these people realize, it will be something about the person’s character that stands out. Of course being active in ways a college community would value might still be a basic consideration, it just might not be the way a given applicant stood out and got admitted.
This is extremely important advice. The most selective colleges that will barely admit you is not necessarily the best college for you.
As potentially relevant to the OP, I have over time started developing a sense of colleges that seem to really like academicky kids who then combine that with a variety of interesting activities. Again, it is important to understand this is not kids checking a lot of boxes they heard are good for college admissions, this is more kids that just come across as having diverse interests, an exploratory mindset, and so on. And because they are smart, creative, enthusiastic kids, they may do well in a variety of activities. But they are not really motivated by concepts like trying to be the best at one particular thing, they just want a lot of great experiences, maybe enjoy doing different things with friends, and so on.
Some of the colleges I have in mind are LACs, where I think kids like that can sometimes really thrive. But also some universities, including both private and public universities. Like just by way of example, William & Mary is on my list of such colleges, and it is a public–although a pretty unusual sort of public.
There are of course more and less selective versions of these colleges, but I am beginning to think mostly that is a matter of academics, and maybe also writing thoughtful essays and getting good recommendations. Point being, though, if everything else lines up, not being a single-spike sort of kid won’t be an issue. Not that they never take such kids, but they are perfectly happy to take a LOT of the sort of kid who is really going to squeeze the juice out of a college where there are lots of different things they could explore and potentially get involved in doing, both academically and non-academically.
OK, so if you think of selectivity in terms of the academic qualifications of their enrolled students, then these can be arbitrarily selective colleges. But if you think of it in terms of really low admit rates–that is a function of how many people apply, including uncompetitive applicants. And they may still be pretty selective in that sense, but maybe not the lowest. And that is because they are not necessarily flooded with a lot of applications from people who are treating such applications like buying a bunch of lottery tickets, where the prize would be getting into the most famous/popular college you can.
But again, it doesn’t make sense to me to assume that just because a college does not get as many lottery ticket applications, it must not be as good of a college for you. And I do think for some individual kids, maybe these sorts of colleges, the colleges actively looking for such kids, could be the better fits.
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