I am on the Academic Team and for those of you who have competed in it you know there are multiple captains for each subject area. There is a captain for fine arts, science, English, social studies, math, and interdisciplinary(the captain for this rotates between the 4 captains). Your team consists of 3 people in total with one of them being captain who ultimately decides the answer to give to the scorer.
Junior year I was captain for the English, and I was sometimes captain for Science if I was not chosen as the captain for English. Captains are chosen by seniority and experience.
I was captain sometimes my Sophomore year but I was usually not. This year which would be my senior year, I should be captain all year. Do I put down I was captain just my Senior and Junior year, or should I put down 10-12th grade I was captain?
I honestly don’t feel like a captain. I really don’t really do anything leadership wise except for when we have meets and my teammates have to ultimately trust my judgement on the answer.
This really isn’t going to be an important factor in the admissions decision. If it makes you feel good, by all means indicate that you are a captain. Hopefully you have other ECs and life experiences that will differentiate you in more important and memorable ways from your class-mates.
Leadership involves a lot more than having a title. Think about situations where you took the initiative, espoused an unpopular view, stood up for someone else who was being put down, taught someone a new skills, encouraged someone who was losing motivation or hope, or introduced a new idea or way of approaching a problem. All examples of leadership and none of which carry a title.
And least you get to hung on on the “L Word”, be aware that leadership is not a mandatory characteristic to be admitted to good schools. Some people are natural leaders. But other people are exceptionally creative, or empathetic, or articulate, or risk-takers, or any of a dozen other important characteristics. Schools need those people too.
Well I mean that seems to apply to a lot of people. I have stood up to bullies who were bullying others and motivated others and taught people new skills like a new language. I can put those on my apps??? There really isn’t any way for me to prove it either.
I mean as captain I do have to try to at least motivated my teammates to not give up. But I must admit I do that out of my self benefit as well because as captain and if my team gets a low score, all the blame is put on me.
My son was Academic Team Captain his senior year, but his title did involve leadership: getting the meet schedules and distributing to the parents/students, scheduling the practice dates and venues, making “snack” schedules, getting student substitutes, and getting uniforms to the students.
So in this sense, he was a “leader”. I think each region does their own “thing” when it comes to academic league.
Were/are you in Scouts? At this stage, you are required to be a patrol leader.
" taught people new skills like a new language. I can put those on my apps???"
Tutoring definitely goes on your app as an EC assuming you put real time and effort into it.
As for ‘standing up to bullies,’ that potentially goes into an essay about who you are, what’s important to you, and what you plan to do with your life, assuming it’s related in some way. Not every kind of leadership fits neatly as a line under ECs or comes with a spiffy title.