For example I played 4 years of a Varsity sport and was captain for senior year? Would playing varsity sport have a bigger impact or for example completing 400+ hours of community service?
No, unless you are going to play that sports in college, no matter how long your experience is I doubt it will weight more than 400+ hour service.
You should do something that you like and is relevant to your interests, not just to get in colleges.
I don’t think it particularly helps in this day and age of the “pointy” applicant, especially if you have to sacrifice other academic opportunities to do it. However, I wouldn’t trade my experiences in HS sports for anything else. They helped me grow as a person and learn some lessons I couldn’t have learned otherwise. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to do a sport in the eyes of the admissions office, but it’s not going to make you stand out to them.
hm i agree!!
The thing that a sport can demonstrate is teamwork and leadership. It can also show time management stills because you can’t pick when you want to do it. The volunteering can be highly variable. If you are spending 400 hours over multiple summers cutting weeds at the local park, the sport is way better. Not saying that some volunteering can be good, but sports is very easy for an AO to understand. Of course, if you are doing either for college applications only, they are both bad.
In general, unless you are a recruited athlete sports is considered to be similar to any other EC. IMO there is no need and no reason to compare activities like that. ECs should be things that interest and excite each individual. And the idea of a college application is to make you and what you have accomplished shine.
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Sports are like other ECs, but playing varsity for 4 years and being a captain might ‘show’ a little better than having 1 club activity for each of 4 years and never having leadership. Colleges want to see depth and sports is one way to do that. Another way might be 4 years of Model UN and leading the group for a year, or playing in the band for 4 years and working your way up to section leader.
I’ve come to the view that for a time spent vs. effect on admissions calculation, HS sports are usually less effective than other options unless recruited. The time investment for many sports outweighs their impact. However, as noted above there are reasons other than the effect on admissions to do HS sports.
If not recruited, sport is just an EC to show your commitment/passion and how you spend your time. It is not really different from other EC like band or orchestra.
From what I’ve seen, most varsity sports take more time over four years than most school band programs over four years. Thus my comment that solely from a time per impact standpoint, varsity sports aren’t usually a great bet. Orchestras seem all over the map in my experience. I do know of a few examples where I felt the student and family optimized their sport choice to be able to say they did four years including varsity for the least amount of time/effort.
No EC is really better than any other. Commitment-team work-leadership-time management-passion. All ECs can demonstrate this…
My daughter did varsity sports for the value AT THE TIME. She loved playing, loved the team. She didn’t want to play in college. Until she did. She’s starting her 4th year in two weeks. It’s been wonderful.
Only one other girl on her team was recruited her year, but they all played hard and got a lot out of it.
Do what you like to do. You never know if the AO was a soccer player or spelling bee champ or star of the spring musical.
Being a recruited athlete is a huge benefit for admissions. Participating in sports in HS is a healthy activity that I would recommend to anyone, but isn’t necessary for college admissions.
Also, the idea of logging “400+ hours of community service” isn’t particularly impressive in and of itself, because it isn’t about hours, it’s about impact. Picking up trash or ladling soup for 400 hours? Sounds like a court ordered sentence. Revamping the homeless shelter’s dining room and instituting restaurant style service to provide a more comfortable environment for families in need (a real life example of a nationally recognized HS community service project), now that’s going to catch people’s attention.
Agree with sherpa. It’s not number of years or number of hours. It’s “what.” And presumably, getting better at it, taking on more responsibilities over time, etc.
That said, I agree 4 years of sports (or band or certain clubs, and lots more,) can show commitment and more. And any old comm service may not be challenging or have much impact. (A lot of kids do little more than show up and count the hours.)
But ladling soup certainly is at least dealing directly with the needy, while lots of typical hs ideas avoid that contact. Just saying 400 hours doesn’t show anything about you.
You’d have to tell us more. And adcoms will look for what and the impact, too.
i volunteer every weekend at a local language school as a teachers assistant! i help grades papers and interact with kids!