So, I just finished reading “How to be a High School Superstar” by Cal Newport. In it, the author provides a route for high school students to live laid back lives while still having high chances of getting into their dream schools.
Basically, his plan is this:
Get rid of any extracurriculars that take up time, and make as much free time as possible.
Then, explore your passions and start up on a unique project (maybe writing a book or doing something extraordinary) using the free time you have.
It makes sense. What are you thoughts/opinions on the book?
Heavy AP classes and dozens of extracurriculars versus a unique, interesting project that will force you to ignore extracurriculars?
It’s a good book. We have largely followed its advice, but we given that my D is only a junior, I won’t know until next yer this time how well it worked out.
It’s probably a good strategy guide if you already have extraordinary talent and your main goal is to get into an elite university. If you’re closer to average, you might struggle to find a “passion” and ultimately not accomplish very much. For example, writing a book isn’t impressive unless you publish it through a reputable publisher. High school is a great time to try a wide variety of classes and ECs (you will be able to specialize for the rest of your life), and it would be unfortunate to miss out on that.
It was a fun read. I agree with what most of @halcyonheather said, and I’d like to add that for his “method” to work, you’ll definitely need luck in your favor. Nonetheless, a good book overall.
I borrowed that book from the library just recently. It definitely changed my outlook on what colleges look for in high school students.
(I’m still shocked that a B student got into Stanford!) 
So, say there are two students. Student A takes rough ap classes, is captain of the track team, does ballet, volunteers and is leader of many clubs. He/she has also won many awards in debate, writing, and public speaking competitions.
Student B is the laid back student but is famous for publishing books.
who would get into harvard?
Best book I have read about college admissions. Even if you only partially embrace his ideas, the thought that (1) grinding out the very top grades in the very hardest courses isn’t the key to good college admissions results, and (2) doing things that you are interested in that go against the grain of what everyone else is doing can help you stand out are both good messages. I also think doing ECs that YOU really find fascinating and doing things that are unique are good for developing human beings in general, even if it doesn’t get you into a great school.
@dongding123, neither will probably get into Harvard. 
But I think Newport would say that if Student B takes a fairly difficult courseload, pulls a 3.8 or so, can get pretty high test scores (not tippy top), and can build a really significant porfolio of writing-related ECs, they have a good shot. But “famous for publishing books” is vague. Self published… meh. Unless it really sold well (hard with self published books), it isn’t going to be that impressive. And you would probably need to do more writing related ECs to appeal to top schools (writing awards, etc). They want people with high energy, high accomplishments, and they know they can do the work. I think Newport’s point is that it is easier, and maybe more enriching, to try to make those high accomplishments something that everyone else is not doing.