Yes, some kids are great at ferreting out opportunities and cobbling together a bunch of courses and experiences from different sources, with a unifying theme. I believe this is the type of self-development which the author is referring to in the book, It's the Student, Not the College.

This reminds me of another interesting book, Self-Directed Learning, whose author presents for the DYS parents, with several summaries of these presentations available on the Davidson Database. This book was also mentioned a few weeks ago on a related thread, Where you go is not who you'll be.