<p>Even for Siemens winners, the Ivy-level institutions are a crapshoot. No one is guaranteed admissions there, and there are no secret tricks to making admissions possible.</p>
<p>Your kid (like every other kid) should pursue activities that are interesting to him, and that help him grow as a person. Some kids are specialists and have only one huge time-sucking activity, and others are generalists and have multiple activities. What works for each of them depends on their own personalities and capabilities. Not to mention that their interests to change over time.</p>
<p>If you haven’t already done so, you should sit down with your tax returns and bank statements, and run the Net Price Calculator at your home-state public U, and at other places you think your kid might be interested in in the future. Find out now what those places will probably expect you to pay, and determine whether that is do-able or not. If it is, great! If it isn’t, pay a visit to the Financial Aid Forum and read up on guaranteed merit-based aid. A kid like yours probably would qualify for some of those scholarships.</p>