<p>Curious to see if colleges care if you play varsity sports or junior varsity sports. I know they would like to see leadership positions (such as captain), but do they care what level of your sport you play on, or do they just like to see you played a sport in high school?</p>
<p>By the way, I'm not talking about athletic scholarships or athletic recruiting. I'm just talking about applying to schools for academic purposes.</p>
<p>I think they want to see you doing the things you love to do, and making something out of it. If you love to play sports, or enjoy sports for the intangible benefits, then play a sport - it means something to you, something more than college admissions. But strictly for college admissions purposes, it doesn’t really matter. I can’t remember the last time I played any kind of sport - probably never outside of gym class - and I did quite alright in the admissions season.</p>
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<p>They don’t care. There’s no rigid EC requirement for getting accepted to college, but I think you’ll find that, unless you’re a recruited athlete, avoiding sports altogether in lieu of more compelling activities (ones that pertain to your interests and you can garner accomplishments in) is a good idea.</p>
<p>^I couldn’t disagree more with that thought. I think it does matter, sometimes a lot. I played three varsity sports at a large public high school known for its athletic success. I was admitted early to a well-known top 5 school and when I spoke to my regional person he said that one of the things that stood out for me was my athletic passion and success. I heard another college rep say that they like varsity athletics because they realize that anyone can join a club but not everyone can compete at a high level in sports. </p>
<p>It’s probably a coincidence but four other kids in my school were admitted ED/EA to HYPSM and all had at least three varsity letters.</p>
<p>Yes, Varsity letters count for something. Even at the UC’s, it can get you some leadership points, similar to ASB and class officer points.
The value of a rigorous program like varsity football is the discipline and perseverence that you demonstrate in the year round training.
If you can do that and excel in academics and testing, you are golden.</p>
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<p>Absolutely. But I was talking about being in a JV sport with little to no accomplishment other than just being on the team, versus devoting the enormous amount of time sports can take up to making serious strides in another arena (NOT just being part of a club!).</p>
<p>In your case, Hope Full, you reached a high level of accomplishment in three sports. That’s a different beast entirely from merely being on a JV team. </p>
<p>The moral of the story is that accomplishment matters at the end of the day. Varsity sports accomplishments>club memberships, but winning Siemen’s (or whatever)>just being on a JV team.</p>
<p>what if you played a sport for 3 years varsity level but did not want to participate in the sport anymore during your senior year… would that hurt your chances?</p>
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Now that’s just silly. Obviously being really good at a sport is often motivation enough to continue playing it, but who says you need to be really good to play and enjoy a sport? If that standard of being really good is being athletically recruit-able at a D1 school, ~95% of HS athletes are not spending their time well by your logic.</p>
<p>Look at it this way though. I’m a high school runner (Cross Country, Winter Track, and Spring Track) and our program is one of the best in the nation. And so, the 10th best runner on our team (Varsity is top 7) would easily be a 3rd man in an average program. So I think the distinction of JV and Varsity differs from school to school as well. The reason colleges seem to love athletes so much is because it shows that a. They go beyond typical academics b. have a commitment to excellence and high standards and c. learn lessons from sports that you won’t learn anywhere else. Varsity shows that you are better and typically demonstrates more commitment, but as I said before, it depends on the school. A great quote from “How To Make It To Top Colleges” was, “Whenever admissions officers get together, they usually end up talking about sports”.</p>
<p>Do colleges look for if you just join a regular high school sport team? If you do not , will it be bad for your resume? Also, how exactly do you create a new thread…</p>
<p>Varsity sports are simply an easy way to convey a large commitment to a single activity. There are few comparable ECs that adcoms will universally know involves roughly 20 hrs/wk for a 14 week season and additional time out of season. Also, sports generally have many awards for high performers to further define their commitment level.</p>
<p>If you are able to demonstrate 300-400 hrs/year with awards in another EC, then it will likely be considered equivalent.</p>
<p>As far as scholarships, there are more full-ride athletic scholarships than any other type. However, athletic full-rides are very limited (a few thousand per year cumulative across the country). In terms of numbers of total scholarships, or total dollars awarded, academic scholarships offer far greater opportunity.</p>