<p>I've been competing on nationally ranked cheerleading squads for years now. I was never planning on cheering in college but one of my friends thinks it might help me get in to some of my schools if I talk to the coaches?
The kind of schools I'm considering (Vanderbilt EDII, Northwestern, Rice) seem to me like they wouldn't really care if they had good cheerleaders or not.
So what do you guys think? Is it worth talking to the coaches? and if so what do I say?</p>
<p>bump. anyone?</p>
<p>If you can be recruited for it then why not try? I’d try some other schools, probably Division I schools since I’m sure they care more about good cheerleaders than those schools would.</p>
<p>Can your school or all star coach not offer any guidance? Our school team had two girls sign last year with Baylor’s first ever competitive team (a team separate from the team that cheers at games.) It seems to me that they were “noticed” at nationals in Orlando…but maybe they were watched their junior year since nationals are in mid-Feb and that would typically be too late for senior applicants. </p>
<p>Good luck. I’m impressed that your body has held up well enough for you to consider cheering in college. I don’t know if my D’s elbows, knees and ankles will even get her all the way through HS cheer.</p>
<p>Well I don’t really want to cheer in college, like you said my body is in terrible condition from all these years. I have suffered way too much already. But I’m the not the strongest academically (when you consider the other kids who apply to these schools) so if it would increase my chances of getting in I would tough it out for a year.</p>
<p>Even if it does increase your chances of getting in, it would look sketchy if you just gave up after one year. The college would question how passionate you were to begin with. If you want to be recruited, you need to be up to par.</p>
<p>I dunno. With the injury rate, I don’t know if it would look all that bad for a student to give it up after only one year.</p>
<p>Well there has to be a legitimate reason. If a doctor states that it is bad for your health, that’s understandable. If you get seriously injured, that is also understandable. However I do not recommend going out and injuring yourself just to get out of cheer leading. Maybe you could mention your passion in an essay or perhaps in the activities section of the common app; however if you wish to be recruited, then you definitely need to be up to par, you can’t just be uncertain about whether you actually want to cheer lead or not.</p>
<p>By the time they are seniors in high school, I bet that at least half the girls who have done serious competitive cheer for any length of time could get a doctor’s note that said that it would be a good idea for them to stop cheering.</p>
<p>Well then apply for recruitment, it may help you. All I am saying is that it will look bad if you quit after just 1 year, but what do I know, go for it.</p>
<p>missypie is completely right haha. I don’t know any serious cheerleader who doesn’t have some kind of chronic pain or something of that sort. But who knows, maybe I’ll enjoy college cheering more than I did high school and all star</p>
<p>I know plenty of kids who have gone to college to play a sport and have dropped it after freshman year or ended up not even doing it so I don’t think it’s that unusual. It’s usually because of not having enough time for academics so I don’t think it looks bad to anybody. The kids I’ve known have been scholarship and non-scholarship athletes, mostly non-scholarship.</p>
<p>For those interested…Top 30 schools such as the few mentioned by OP, do not recruit for cheerleading. Cheerleading awards and participation will look great as an EC, but it won’t give you an edge over the competition unless you have competitive stats. Once accepted, then you can tryout in April. Decisions are released before the May 1st deadline. Schools that consistently do well at Worlds (U of KY, U of Louisville, U of Central FL, etc.) do recruit for cheerleading I believe, but competition is fairly intense.</p>