Now, this seems like it makes sense to me: follow your passion, do something amazing, and you get in to the school of your dreams. That’s how the system is supposed to work. However, it seems as if everybody (teachers, counsellors, parents) has always told me that it’s best to just be good at everything (well rounded).
I, for example, am signed up next year to be “on track” for IB, a program that at my school focuses more on history and English than the sciences. I’d much rather focus on computer science, through online or college classes or my own projects, but I don’t have time because of the AP classes I dislike. At the same time, I can’t imagine NOT pushing myself/being the best at everything.
No I’ve watched these videos where a real admissions lady talks about all these made up apps and what makes them good, bad etc. and the ones that are super focused are the best. Ex: girl wanted to major in something having to do with French, she has a French blog, she went to France over the summer…
The expectation is some of both. Highly selective colleges expect high school students to learn a well-rounded base of the usual academic subjects (English, math, history and social studies, science, foreign language, art) but also focus to an advanced level of achievement in some academic and/or extracurricular strength.
“Now, this seems like it makes sense to me: follow your passion, do something amazing, and you get in to the school of your dreams.”
Oh, if only this were true.
The hyper-competitive nature of college admissions today means that you cannot have a “dream” school. You need to develop a list of a wide variety of schools that you would be happy to attend.
While I generally agree that focus is more important than breadth, no one can tell you if the “spike” really works. If there were some magic formula that automatically got you admission into your dream school, everyone would know about it.
This blog article has been discussed on this website in other threads. You might want to look at those.
Personally, I think making choices in high school that interest you will serve you much better in the application process than choosing what you think will look “good” to an admissions officer.