What is a Spike and How Can You Develop One?
A spike usually comes up in your extracurriculars, and can manifest in many ways. Developing one depends heavily on knowing where your passion lies because the only way for anyone to stand out in a particular field takes an enormous amount of persistence, discipline, and hardwork. If you’re interested in photography and giving back, you could host photography auctions for charities and publish your work in prestigious magazines. If you’re interested in computer programming, you could start a non-profit dedicated to teaching Black and Latinx students how to code.
It could be anything as long as you are passionate about it and that it fulfills three main criteria: alignment, dedication, and significance.
Alignment means that everything you choose to do is connected and in-sync with your overall profile. For example, a student who takes advanced English courses, competes in spelling bee at the national level, and leads a writers’ mentorship program at a local community college demonstrates strong alignment in his or her portfolio. This student will most likely be more desirable compared to someone who chooses to take English courses, plays on the school’s football team, and volunteers at a local shelter.
Dedication affirms that you genuinely care about the activities you decide to pursue. For instance, a student who participated as a member for two years before taking on a leadership position at the school’s coding club indicates that the student was willing to put the time and energy into sticking with computer programming. This is a strong demonstration of dedication, and will make the student more competitive than someone who dabbled in coding for one year and in math the following year.
Significance refers to the level of impact of the activities, and is the most important criterion of the three. Significance is where you show that you are capable of achieving remarkable results in a particular area. For example, a student who has his or her work published in National Geographic displays a completely different level of significance than someone who participates in the school’s photography club.
It goes without saying that developing a spike doesn’t mean you can fail the rest of your application. You will still need above-average GPA, standardized test scores, letters of recommendations, and personal statements, but the emphasis here is above-average, not perfect. By focusing all your time and energy on something means you will have to compromise elsewhere, and that’s okay.
In a nutshell, the secret to rising above the competition is to find something you’re genuinely interested in, and focus on developing it in an impactful way.
To learn more about which extracurricular activities to pursue, check out “Choosing the Right Extracurricular Activities.”