<p>Hey, first post here, but I have been a frequent visitor of this site and I have a question for you guys.</p>
<p>Right now I am a Junior in HS, come next year I will be probably be looking at schools like northwestern, washu, emory, vanderbilt, etc...</p>
<p>So as of now my GPA is around 3.9 and I pretty much take the hardest courses at my school (3 aps so far), and I have settled with my most recent ACT score which was a 33.</p>
<p>However, I am truthfully a little worried about my ec's. The catch here is that pretty much half of my high school life comes during winter when wrestling season starts. Next year I will be the captain for our team and I have already received a few honors for it (all-league, all-section).</p>
<p>I am probably the only kid on our team that actually does very well in school and wrestles at the same time because it really is a very tough and demanding sport... I am not trying to brag but I used to play tennis/do xc and doing well in school while also competing at a high level in wrestling is about 10 times harder than in those sports. </p>
<p>However, my problem is that I do not really want to wrestle at even a d3 school, because I would rather join a club where it is less intense and competitive. </p>
<p>So back to my original question, pretty much my only EC is wrestling varsity for four years (and going to Harvard model congress..) but if I am not going to do anything with it in college have i sort of screwed myself over, or do you think colleges will care about it and see how it is impressive that I have been able to manage my time and even do better in school come wrestling season? Thanks</p>
<p>How the colleges look at it will depend on how competitive they are in admissions. Let me say off the bat that its admirable that you’ve committed to the sport and been able to succeed academically. You stand out at your school for this, as you’ve noted. Problem is, the most selective schools in the country are flooded with apps from bright hard-working kids. So they use factors like ECs to make their decisions. And at the most selective colleges the bar gets set very high. You are a standout at your school, deservedly so, but in the national context may not be as strong relative to the other applicants.</p>
<p>Now the colleges you listed are a bit down in selectivity, but they’re still going to be quite competitive in admissions at around 25% acceptance rates. You certainly have a shot, but if you ask for advice I’d suggest first spending all the time it takes to find a safety (admission and expense wise) that you would be happy to attend, next find matches that are a fit, and only lastly focus on the reaches. Its the opposite of the way most kids do it, but I think it increases the chances of a happy ending.</p>
<p>I wish they weren’t… Getting into NHS at my schools is very difficult and yet it still is the largest club on campus (over 100 in just the Junior class - there’s over 660 people in my graduating class) and I worked hard to become Treasurer and work even harder now that I’m an officer but I get told that’s not impressive. I volunteered for 75 hours at a Bio Lab at UCF, but that’s nothing special. I volunteered for 100 hours (and counting) at a pediatric urgent care, but that’s mundane. And I do all this with 5 AP classes and a hectic personal life but that makes no difference. I do the things I’m interested in (like every college rep says to do) but really, colleges (at least the uber competitive ones) don’t give a crap what you like. </p>
<p>To answer your question, yes they count for a substantial amount of your app. But we can’t all write best-selling novels or star in award winning films. So unless you have an extraordinary amount of luck to take part in something so unrealistic, it’s going to be a gamble.</p>
<p>thanks for the insight guys, and yea okie I think I am going to try and do some community service this summer… Jasonleb it sucks man, I know how you feel :/</p>
<p>I have actually been asking myself this question a lot lately. I’m almost sure a college would accept someone with a 2400 and 4.0gpa even if they did ZERO. I know many students like this are denied from top schools, but your chances are 1/8 at the Ivies. One will accept you…</p>
<p>My main EC is work. I work a great deal but can not put down the words colleges are looking to see - “president” “founder” “chief”. I feel like even though I’ve been working at the store for almost 5 years, the colleges over look it.</p>
<p>You should be proud of your athletic accomplishments. You’ve added a dimension to your life that will keep you healthy and focused for college and the years beyond. Everyone knows that it takes a great deal of effort and skill to compete at a high level, and you’ve proved your maturity and leadership by being selected captain. Keep an accurate list of your hours and weeks spent - including summer leagues and training off-season. Whoever reads your application will see that you didn’t have time for a lot of extra ECs. If you get along well with the coach, you might ask him for a supplementary letter of recommendation.
You have a nice list of reaches. Some of your schools welcome athletes - Northwestern and Vanderbilt come to mind. My middle son is at Vanderbilt and plays and refs for the club and frat leagues. They are full of HS varsity athletes (and can get ridiculously competitive!) I hope you’ll get to visit, and go by the rec center while the leagues are in play. It will set your mind at ease about whether varsity sports get the proper respect on applications.</p>
<p>jason, I’m not kidding. If a student has a 2400, 4.0gpa, and have taken the hardest classes at a school. I’m confident the student will be accepted to at least one of the Ivies. Of course, I have nothing to back this up. But I truly feel like this is the case. </p>
<p>On the contrary, I feel like EC’s are important for a student during their HS life. It takes our minds off school and allows us to participate in something we enjoy with our friends.</p>
<p>^I thought you were talking about in general lol. And that sounds great and all but colleges aren’t interested in you doing what you’re interested in with your friends despite what they say. I enjoyed organizing a Relay for Life event with my friends for NHS and staying up all night having blast at the Relay. Anybody care about that? No, even though we raised $6,000 it’s still “just NHS”. People should do what they want for community service but it’d be foolish to convince oneself that a college will appreciate how much they enjoyed it if it’s not something as amazing as starting your own successful company.</p>
<p>Uh, no, that’s not “just NHS.” Yes, someone who started a successful business will likely be more impressive–because they’re making money on a regular, long-term basis. But if you think you just get checked off for being in NHS and that your accomplishments will go ignored, you’re disillusioned about this entire process. You can write about this in your resume or the Common App’s activity essay or get the NHS advisor to write you an additional letter of rec. </p>
<p>I’m starting to think people don’t give adcoms enough credit.</p>
<p>I definitely give adcoms a great deal of credit! I think it is just that the admissions “game” seems so bizzare to us. We don’t have a concrete answer as to how the adcom will view our EC’s. That is fantastic that you participated in that and enjoyed it jason. Even if it didn’t help for college, it was something you enjoyed.</p>
<p>Yeah wrestling eats up all your time and energy, and the fact that you’ve kept up a 3.9 while wrestling is pretty astounding (my grade once dropped from 3.71 to 2.71 during a wrestling season ) The worst par tis after it’s done, you never want to do any more sports ever again haha.
I have also only done wrestling, I managed to squeeze in some robotics, and that’s pretty much it. Pick something to do during the off season that isn’t a sport, that’s the best advice I can give you.</p>
<p>I feel bad for my brother. He is great at wrestling but it takes SO much time. I mean SO much. Every weekend he travels away. He can’t even eat what he wants during the season. It really is insane.</p>
) The worst par tis after it’s done, you never want to do any more sports ever again haha.