<p>How do admissions view a sport as an EC? My D is nationally ranked, but not high enough to be recruited to her top choices. Her grades are competitive, and she could likely walk on. But she hasn't had much experience in other EC's. Sport dominates all of her free time. Does anyone have any experience with this?</p>
<p>I guess it depends some on what her top choices are. I think EC’s are only one part of the admission equation. My D applied to mostly LAC’s, and she had excellent grades and test scores, good recommendations, and a decent essay as well as her sports. Other EC’s were very light, but her admission results were great. She had some contact with coaches at about half the schools to which she applied. She was not technically recruited at her college, but had sent a video to the coach, who gave her some support by filling out a form saying they would like to have her on the team. I don’t know for sure if this helped, (she was admitted to several schools without any coach contact at all) but I don’t think having sports as the main EC will be a detriment in admissions. She should concentrate on her whole application.</p>
<p>I was very worried about this a few years ago when my son applied. He had a career ending knee injury senior year so college hockey came off the table. He had little in the way of ECs as all of his time had been spent on travel hockey, weightlifting, etc.–he also worked at the ice rink. He quantified how many hours a week he had spent and I think admissions could see that he was very passionate about something. You often hear that they would rather see a kid explore a passion than be superficially involved in numerous things. He also wrote a great essay. He even got into his reach school! So I think your D will be fine.</p>
<p>Sports ECs helped me a LOT, and I was varsity only in my senior year. I could not figure out any other differentiating factor as to why I got into my top choices, except that most honors student either didn’t do sports and did not get into their top choices, or did sports and did get into their top choices. Sounds bleak for others, but that was my experience - sports help to show teamwork, perseverance, and getting along with others. Some other ECs may have the same impact on one’s life, but it is more interpretative and implied that there is more teacher involvement (like Model UN or Forensics, people assume teachers are helping a lot and leading, whereas a coach is expected to “let players play”).</p>