This thread made me remember an article I read a ways back and now I can't remember where I saw it.. maybe even here… that talked about how it's not enough anymore for elite colleges if an applicant got straight As, took all the AP classes and graduated at the top of their class, they want to see the kids that did all of that AND had an interest that they had developed on their own (for instance, the high school student who invents some new thing and is marketing it, or the one who has created a non-profit for helping underprivileged children…etc.)
I don't know how kids have the time to take all the AP classes with all the homework, etc. and still have time to develop something like this. I know there will be some that do, but it is hard even as an adult to find the opportunities that fuel a passion that will look good on a college application. That said, I would rather have my children follow their passions and have that be something that gets them into college than it be all about becoming the perfect student to the detriment of outside interests.
I think the key is to hire a student academic development manager along with a college consultant in middle school. They will have lists of "hooks" that are currently working given the state of Harvard/Princeton admissions criteria.
You want to make the entire process appear organic and effortless, which requires a lot of time and money, as well as multiple retained experts, so ideally you have one parent adopt this as a full-time job during the early high school years to coordinate the management of the enterprise.
Because if you make one wrong move, you will end up at a place like Brown University. And nobody wants that.
