I am going to be a HS Junior this year and I am not exactly looking forward to cross country. I love running, but in particular I love endurance trail running on my own time. I love getting up at 5-6 am and running on the trails alone with an audiobook or just the sounds of nature. But with cross country, I would have to defer my run until 2:30 pm and practice with the team. That’s okay, albeit a bit frustrating. However, I would also have to specifically train for 5k races and run one every Saturday for two months. I hated that last year, and I wasn’t exactly thrilled about it as a freshman either.
I would rather run on my own schedule and run one race during the season, which would likely be a 12 hour endurance run at a nearby trail. However, I’m worried that doing my own running activity when my school has a perfectly good running team would be frowned upon or would weaken my application. In addition, I already told my friends and coaches that I would be doing cross country in the fall. I’m not the fastest runner–I was barely varsity last year and only because two of the varsity runners got injured–so by not doing cross country I wouldn’t be jeopardizing my team’s position in the conference.
To be clear, I have other extracurricular activities besides running. I am the Vice President of my school’s NHS, I started a math club this year to prepare students for the AMC, and I played band for the past two years (unfortunately I will not be able to this year due to a schedule conflict). I also have no concern for my academic standing; I am currently the top of my class I will graduate with at least two Associate Degrees and, if I put my full effort into academics, potentially a BS in Mathematics. My test scores are decent; all my AP scores are 5’s and my ACT composite was 34, but I have yet to take the PSAT/SAT.
Considering the situation, do I need to (or should I) do cross country this year?
Agreed with the above! It sounds like you would enjoy running on your own time more, so do that. Running cross country as a sport doesn’t matter as much unless you are extraordinarily good at it, otherwise it doesn’t make that much of a difference in your application when considering you have plenty of other great things. Plus it will free up your time for other things you care about.
It is fine to give up track and replace it with other ECs you prefer. Unless you have the potential to become a recruited athlete, a sport will be regarded the same as other ECs that you spend a similar amount of time doing.
With cross country, you don’t know whether you will get into any Ivy League schools. Without cross country, you don’t know whether you will get into any Ivy League schools. I don’t think that you can run your life trying to guess what Ivy League schools want or don’t want on your application.
Participate in ECs that you want to participate in. Keep ahead in your classes and do the best that you can, while taking the honors classes and AP classes that you want to take and that you are comfortable with. Then attend a university that appreciates what you have done.
It sounds like you are a great student and there will be very good universities that you can attend.
You do not need to have any big sport to get into an Ivy league school. Each Ivy league want different things ot be achieved among high school students.
Many Ivy league colleges do not properly filter out the best applicants. They just filter out the ones they feel is best for their school. This is something that many people do not consider when applying to different Ivy league schools. Having a good GPA and a good SAT and ACT is a crucial factor fo doing well for college applications, and on top of that should be extra curriculum.
Ivies like really smart athletes. But, you have to be capable of doing well in Ivy League athletic competitions in order to be put on a coach’s preferred admit list. Because your posts indicate that you are not a competitive high school runner, you would be unlikely to get any admissions boost by an Ivy athletic dept. or coach. Running on the team will, nonetheless, make you appear as a more well rounded applicant.
P.S. You can research the times needed to be a recruited cross country or track runner.
Also, because you are dropping out of band as well as cross country, Ivy admission may be a longshot for you assuming no other “hooks”.
You might want to expand your list of desired schools beyond the Ivy League. Consider applying to some state school honors colleges. You may be able to start with a substantial amount of course credits, graduate a year early, or graduate with both a BA/BS & a masters degree. Several will offer significant merit scholarships based on your numbers alone (ACT & GPA).@epicycloids