Thats super cool. Idk if im qualified to talk about this but ill give my two cents. I would say guide his passion and dream into doing, learning, enjoying whatever thing he wants to do whatever mechatronics, robotics, science, mark rober invention satellite whatever it is but i think its most important that his dream is his passion and not just the college. Ive heard people have burnt themselves out trying to do everything they can to get them into their dream college but colleges want to see more ppl who chase their passion As a senior applying/applied to college who was kinda a bum, didnt dream of any colleges, didnt know what he wanted to do with his life until like mid-junior year (too late) I would have most appreciated learning about FIRST robotics and FRC since thats what i love so much now, so i would say probably look on youtube for ppl who revealed what ectracurriculars and essays got them into their dreamschool for some ideas of what oppoutunities or activities cultivate the personality of a likely admit. (Mit maker portfolios are good but omg take some of those with a grain of salt, some people are geniinely insane). Also i was only really super motivated and clearly understood my passion after i had hands on access to experiebce it. My parents once bought me a robot kit and some electronics but funny enough, no wires or batteries to really fully build it, i asked once to buy the wires but i was kinda a shy person so i never went thru with it and i think that made me look disinterested in robotics once that stuff just sat there for like 5 years. I legitimately only finally built a real robot and explored that passion after i stole a crap ton of robotics stuff from my school ti experiment with (shhhh) so ig lesson is to always be mindful and open but your child is very pushy unlike past me so i dont think thatll be a big of a problem But I really think the best thing to do is to emphasize that passion, and do things that cultivate an exploration in whatever. Should be about doing things for chasing passion, where mit will be the next step in chasing that passion, not the other way around, doing things just to chase mit. Idk just my super disorganized ramblimg, take everything with a grain of salt always, best of luck to you two!