<p>It would probably be better if you did a somewhat more popular high school sport (besides our all-american football players/basketball players) such as Track and Field, Cross-Country, Crew, Sailing, Water Polo, Tennis, Golf, etc. I'm sure you can find these sports at you neighborhood country club or you could participate in county meets and do self-training. The problem with fencing is, if you ever heard Olympian Michael Johnson say, "Nobody in America really cares about Track and Field" how do you think people would think about fencing? Unless if your extremely talented or show very enthusiastic interest in it, most people will put it aside.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips, but it's really too late to do much about it now. My interviewers didn't really ask me about sports at all. Most of them focused on music and art.</p>
<p>umm i don't mean to be rude but the people who get in on smarts alone are the people who have near perfect SSAT scores.
you would be totally set if you had a sport... it's kinda too late
you are prob going to be put in the smart only pile, which could be good or bad</p>
<p>you can really never tell
any backups?</p>
<p>Well I hope to get a great SSAT score eme14591! I'll let you know when I get them back though! :D Backups? Music and Art are very important to me. I plan on sending the Admissions Committee a CD and a portfolio. I'll try to pick up a sport, what do you suggest? I have trouble with anything that involves running (I'm hypolgycemic) and I tend to get really dizzy and pass out even if I run short distances. It can be a problem.</p>
<p>Sorry but I really need to say this. Playing a sport and being good at academics IN NO WAY MAKES YOU WELL ROUNDED. I reject the idea that I'm in the "smarts only category". Thats just stupid, I mean everyone there is in that category and the rest get in more or less purely off sports, which according to an andover prep friend of mine is a tiny minority. Admissions wouldn't care if I played three sports; I would be mediocre at each of them. Playing a sport doesn't make you normal or well rounded. If sports were such a major thing they wouldn't be able to maintain a 93 average on the ssat.</p>
<p>Sorry guys, this thread was making me feel bad about not playing any sports and I wanted to justify my not playing one. Sorry for the rambling</p>
<p>ping-pong....
no im not kidding.... harvard accepted like 50 or something ping-pong players.... haha its insane (they accepted ED)</p>
<p>but ya... no running involved... and you can pick it up pretty easily... i know they have tournaments like every weekend.... if you play a few and pick up some trophies... it could actually be a really interesting accomplishment.... can you comment on mine??</p>
<p>actually istoleyyournose!</p>
<p>i am a nationally ranked swimmer and i have a 98 ssat score... so ya its possible</p>
<p>What are you talking about? I didn't say you couldn't do both. I'm saying that doing both does not make you well rounded. Especially when you pick up a sport singularly for the admissions peoples to look at. (Not saying you did that, I'm talking about if I were to do that)</p>
<p>I already have eme! I love pingpong! It is not a popular sport where I live though. :( I love fencing and it's as much of a sport as tennis. It really bothers me that some people don't think it counts as one, I mean if you're going to include cheerleading... My interviewers all seemed very impressed that I fenced, and recommended that if I could get enough people interested and find someone to teach it, it could become a class! oh and istoleyournose I think they were referring to me. :( so just relax! you seem like a great applicant!</p>
<p>Thanks lost, I just thought that what they were talking about applied to both of us in a general way. =), sorry for the angry fit of rage though lolz.</p>
<p>thingslost.... ya i know fencing is a sport... haha there's this kid in my grade that does... and my younger bro does....
wait by any chance do you live in new york??</p>
<p>Los Angeles. You're just a little off. :)</p>
<p>HA..... funny funny funny</p>
<p>hey everyone. im at choate now and i havent posted for a while but i felt like this board needed some non athletic perspective. i have never been a sporty person and only participated in a year of volleyball before applying to choate. it isnt that im not interested in sports, ive just never been very good at them. i get my exercise, but i found other things way more important to me than athletics. i respect that team sports have countless benefits and will probably help in the admissions process, however please do not put down applicants who do nt participate in one kind of activity. while i will say that perhaps istoleyournose could use a little more diversity in his application, i feel like this board got very negative, very fast. to istoleyournose: if at this stage, you dont have a sport, and there isn't one that you htink you wouldn't enjoy, find another way you can show yourself off to the admissions committee. make your essays the best that they can be and excel in courses in various areas.
everybody, please remember that these boards are for support, not criticism and negative comments. be constructive and thoughtful in what you say, and people will actually listen to your advice.
(i'd also like to say that when at boarding school, there tend to be so many other "Athletic" activities like yoga, aerobics, intramural sports and even theater so don't despair)</p>
<p>Yay for xoxcookie! Thanks for the post!</p>
<p>Thanks for that cookie =)</p>
<p>Yayy cookie! I totally second that... I wrote some huge post like a week ago saying the exact same thing... it CAN be so negative.</p>
<p>Your chances are not very high given your ECs and math SSAT score. A/E are so competitive that you really need to stand out from the crowd with a passion about something. What is your passion? What can you convey in your essays and interviews that makes you different or that you could bring to the community?</p>
<p>Alrighty get ready for some more rambling. </p>
<p>When someone makes a chances thread it is usually for one of two reasons. 1. They have a really awful thing in their "stats" and want to know how bad it is. 2. They think they have a great app and ultimately want assurance that it's so.
When I came on here I was the latter, I thought my app was really really good. While the constructive criticism does make sense as it would seem I'm simply asking for my chances. But, since your not an admissions officer and people's chances matter so deeply to them, I think it's just rude to say they have low chances unless it's a really awful application. Also, Wowsa, you jumped right to my negatives; that I don't play sports and got a 70 on the math portion. Why not look at the 99 on the verbal or the fact that I'm 2nd in my state at chess? I know you still probably think I have low chances but, since my opinion is about as valuable as yours on the matter, I disagree.</p>
<p>Sorry about this but still feeling a lil insecure lolz,
Wowsa, I looked at your other posts on people's chance threads. On almost every single one you called them mediocre and asked them if they were passionate about anything. I'll tell you one thing right now, this board has a ton of insanely good applicants some of which you called mediocre. If it really was to be constructive criticism on your part it would have to differ from person to person, but it does not. Not every 14 year old has a passion yet (apparently chess doesn't count), and you can't expect us to obtain one in the month between now and february.</p>