Just saying, “spikey” generally runs counter to the idea kids will branch out of their primary interest area, explore more of college life, academic and in ECs. Not just the major. The show is in what you did in hs. Nearly all ECs in your own interest area is risky. You don’t want a top adcoms to think, “this kid is too spikey.”
Having spike in one area is fine, when it’s balanced by other activities in other areas. In general, for top colleges, you do want some rounding. Even MIT talks about this.
And right now, your scores are in the 25th percentile. Maybe they come up. But you need to cautiously consider.
Of course there are anecdotes. But those were kids who somehow knocked the full rest of their apps out of the park. Too much is made of hooks, as if they’re a magic wand. The top colleges want to know you can thrive there, by their definitions. Unfortunately, that includes scores, for several reasons.
When Duke speaks of kids with a “variety of experiences,” it’s not limited to family background.
I’'m not discouraging you as much as saying to go about this with eyes wide open.
My kid got into great colleges with lower scores. But that doesn’t begin to cover how she purposefully matched herself to the rest of what those colleges hoped for. She could “show” it.
Think about it.