hi! I am wondering if I need to be part of a sport team in my school in order to get into USC or UCLA. Right now I am not participating in any extracurricular activities, but I do volunteer at blood drives and hospitals. Do I still have a decent chance without doing a sport? Thanks
I don’t think you need a sport per se. However, the UC application has two separate areas for volunteer work and ECs. To be a competitive applicant, it’s likely you need to have interests or accomplishment in each section. If you haven’t already, you can start the UC application and see the various sections.
Agree, a sport doesn’t matter, but no ECs of substance will hurt you.
Be aware that USC is a private university, not part of the UC system.
As for your question about sports, my answer would be “no.” My SoCal-raised daughter, who graduated from high school in 2015, did not play a sport . . . and she was admitted to UCLA, UC-Berkeley (spring admission), UCSD, and UCI.
However, she had some strong non-sports interests. The moral seems to be–as the above posters point out–that you will need solid ECs of some sort to get into the UCs.