Being on JV junior year...okay to colleges?

Applying to College
1

(I’m still getting the hang of how this website works, apologies in advance if I’ve posted in the wrong section or somehow made a mess)

Hi! I’m a junior attending high school in the fringes of LA county. I had a question about whether it’s better to be on JV junior year, drop the sport altogether, or strive for varsity.

I joined the swim team at school in my sophomore year and was the slowest swimmer on JV. I spent most of the summer training in order to get to the varsity level, but the improvement has been little and my largest time drop for any event has been only five seconds.

Extracurricular swim practice (which I’ve been going to in order to maintain my speed) has started to conflict with my general schedule and hurt my grades. I’m only taking 2 APs and a non-UC approved honors course, but practice still finds a way to stress me out. I’m seriously considering stopping out-of-school practice, but this would definitely confine me to JV in junior year.

So, I was wondering, would it look alright to colleges if I was only a JV swimmer for both my sophomore and junior year? Would it be better to drop swim as a whole in junior year, and pursue other things during that time? Or would it be better to stick with it and strive for the varsity title?

I’ve already decided that if I do drop the extracurricular practice, the time I would spend in extracurricular practice will be spent either studying for the SAT or writing pieces for the writing competitions in my area. I’m not planning on sitting and fermenting, but I don’t want to make a decision that would hurt my chances of getting into college.

Thank you!

2

Unless you are a recruited athlete, sports are just another EC. JV is just fine if you are enjoying swimming.

3

I agree…You are showing that you can handle academics and a time consuming EC, work with a team, commit to an activity.

If you enjoy swimming, keep swimming!

4

I also agree that JV is fine.

But I’d suggest more than SAT prep and solo writing. You want to show colleges how you engage with peers and stretch a bit. What you choose to be involved with tells adcoms a lot about you, the opportunities you see and take on.

5

ECs are extras, things that show who you are as a person, what you like and value, and illustrate what you might contribute to a campus. Grades and scores are what show if you can hack the work and are what get you into better schools. You didn’t mention what your scores are or what sort of schools you’re looking at, but with only a couple APs you’re in the comfortable normal mid-range so not having perfect ECs is not going to be what keeps you out of Stanford.

If you aren’t being recruited for the sport, or a captain, or your doctor says you need the cardio work then the swimming won’t matter. Do it because you love it, or you want to stay in shape, or you enjoy being on a team. If all that sucks and you just want to sleep in and stop the shoulder pain then drop it. If it’s somewhere in between then drop the extra hours, just do the school practices and invest only the effort your results are worth. Sports should be fun.