A spike or any area of passionate expertise is valued in college admissions. For me, that is in biology and STEM competitions. I’m currently a freshman in high school, working towards hitting top 20 USABO next year and ISEF sometime throughout high school. The issue, however, is that I’ve got relatively bad grades (A-, B+) throughout the first semester of taking Honors Biology (as AP Bio isn’t available until 10th grade for us). Would this possible degrade the value of my extracurricular activities, because of the fact that they are in the same area?
Typically your transcript (GPA + course rigor) will be more important than ECs. Focus on keeping your grades up first and foremost.
Your grades are a reflection of what you have actually done. The others are things that you are hoping to do. They may or may not happen.
How can you say that your “area of passionate expertise” is biology and STEM competitions when you are only a high school freshman? Have you done any of these competitions? Have you won? If not then it isn’t an area of expertise. Maybe you will develop an expertise in this area in the future, maybe not. I agree with others that your grades are more important than these competitions. Bring up that biology grade first, then you can think about competitions.
@me29034 thank you for your reply! My main focus right now is to improve my grade in biology and I’ve actually been reviewing all the topics covered throughout the course so far during winter break. Biology and STEM activities are areas I hope to explore in the future and succeed in. Thanks for the advice.
Admissions folk tend to call it someone who is “angular” versus well rounded these days. Maybe spikes had a negative connotation or gave students the wrong idea.
However. Imho it’s more about your ecs and leadership in ecs thst reflect your personal strengths and focus. What makes you tick. And interesting which translates into memorable for the 15 minutes they’ll be reviewing your file.
Angular, as an example, referenced by a Stanford admissions dean, Erinn Andrews.,The student who self taught themselves German as an example, who has 5s in ap Spanish and applies to GWU or gtown for foreign service. Also volunteers over the summer working in a area of service in Amish country leverging the self taught German. And also translates the local text for a not for profit into Spanish. Essays expresses a love for languages and being of service, this ties into schools and major chosen.
That’s the angular they would like to see if it’s who you are. Not as a insincere strategy. That’s a trap for you.
@SaiR78 Spikes and ECs only matter if you’re aiming for highly selective schools, and even there they only matter after you’ve already nailed the stats: High GPA with a rigorous course load and standardized test scores.
Grades come first. Nail that, then worry about the rest later.