For years I told parents the same thing everyone tells them. Focus on grades. The rest will follow.
I don't say that anymore.
Grades still matter. But they stopped being the whole story a long time ago. Universities today are not looking for a transcript. They are looking for a person. Someone who has spent three or four years actually building something, not just preparing for exams.
I meet parents every week who are doing everything right by the old rules and still feel like they're falling behind. That's not because their child isn't working hard. It's because the target moved and nobody told them.
The good news is once you see this clearly, it's actually simpler. Not easier. Simpler. You stop chasing every subject and every activity, and you start asking a better question. What is my child actually good at, and how do we build on that, starting now.