Would it hurt you if your spike is not that much related to the subject you want to major in?Answered
I’m a freshman at a public high school in Canada and I’m planning on applying to one of the ivy schools. I don’t have any spikes currently but I’m planning on making debate and math my spikes since I work best with myself. However, I want to major in medical science so I’m wondering if it would be disadvantageous to have a spike that’s not very much related to your intended major?
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3 answers
Not necessarily. The idea behind a "spike" is to show that you can pursue something that you care about—ideally you're using your pursuit of that goal that to show that you'll be successful in pursuing your major or course of study in college.
Now, if all of your most accomplished high school activities revolve around debate and math but you write all of your essays about wanting to study medicine in college, they may wonder why you didn't do more things related to medicine in high school. So do try to at least do some stuff related to your goals in college now—that will a) help you figure out if that's what you really want to do with your life and b) show colleges that your interest is real, which is especially important for careers that some people gravitate towards due to their prestige rather than genuine interest (e.g. medicine, law, computer science and engineering).
Ivy leagues are looking to see if you will be successful in your field after college. If you can have a really really good and successful spike, even if it is not in a science field, then I think it will be okay. Just make sure that colleges see that what you are doing will be relevant to the science field like the person below said. There can be a lot of math in science, and math helps you apply reasoning and thinking skills like you need in the medical field. Overall, use your spike to show the Ivy League colleges that you want to do great things and that you are skilled enough to achieve your goals and be successful.
It would depend on if you could find a narrative which says debate lets me do blank and blank helps me in science becuase it allows me to do blank
ex debate lets me aticulate responses and articulating helps me in public policy becuase it allows me to give presentations to city official or somethhing like that.
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Personally, its easiest for me to show spikes in finance and technology in high school, but Im considering doing biomed engineering in college, hence doesn't that look bad?