That sums up the situation I have observed with princess riverdawg and many of her friends. There is an “arms race” among the college-bound kids to accumulate the most resume-building “weapons,” including taking the largest possible number of AP courses, being deeply involved in extracurricular activities (but not in an unfocused way), and building a personal “narrative” or “story” for your college application that will attract the attention of some admissions officer. It's really out of control ...
Even in the 90s they had a lot of that.
I never did the “extra-curricular” thing much, I was kind of a dork, I didn’t get along with the “cool” kids, but didn’t have enough geek-cred to hang out with the geeks either...and my athletic ability is bested by Stephen Hawking. So I just - gasp! - focused on my studies! The horror!
Our older son is a high school senior, and I completely agree with your observations. The bright kids in our community have been busting their shoes for years to accumulate resume builders of all sorts. We see it in our Boy Scout troop, where many of the boys knock themselves out to get to Eagle and then stop coming to meetings, because their primary motivation was to add to their resume. They're accomplished good kids who are learning a great deal, but some of them are becoming drones in the process. Our sons have never gone to summer 'nerd camp'. They've always gone to traditional outdoor summer camp or Scout camp, and engaged in summer swimming and other activities. They work hard all year, and we want them to be well rounded young men who still know how to dream and innovate and not just spit back rote learning.
Our older son has wrapped up the last of his AP classes, and what we've seen is that many schools do not accept AP credits. The primary function of the AP classes has been to learn more and to demonstrate that he is willing to challenge himself. They have made him a stronger candidate for college applications, but will not save us much money on college tuition. He has decided not to attempt to place out of his college calculus or physics classes, because he thinks they are so fundamental to engineering that he'd rather repeat some content than take a chance on having an incomplete foundation.
Each student will choose a different path, and I think that's a good thing. Our public schools should be offering a range of options and solid guidance to students to help them choose the best courses and levels for their goals and abilities.