Do you have to play a sport for 4 years?

Applying to College
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My D has been on the tennis team for 3 years. Next year her school is doing major construction and removing all the tennis courts in the process. The team will have to practice and have all home matches at a neighboring high school (at least 20 min away). My D has a really busy schedule next year- she’s President of 4 major organizations, has a great internship, and is trying to maintain her #1 or #2 ranking.

Would it hurt her admissions chances by not joining the tennis team next year? (She’s only a Varsity doubles player) The daily extra driving time would really be hard on her schedule. However she doesn’t want to look like a quitter. Would a letter from her GC be acceptable explaining the loss of the tennis courts? Any thoughts?

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<p>Not in the least, unless she's hoping to play on the tennis team in college. Kids have to prioritize, just like parents do. No letter from the GC is necessary. You want letters that emphasize the positive, the kid's interests and growth, not ones that are all defensive about not playing a sport every year.</p>

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<p>She's not playing tennis in college. She's really concerned that they'll look negatively on the 3 vs 4 years. She used to do school musicals (9th and 10th)but stopped due to the time commitment. Tennis would be the second thing she didn't continue with. She would hope that the adcoms would be able to see all the additional quality activities she's added in their place.</p>

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<p>I do think you have a reason to be concerned but only when you peel the surface away from your question.</p>

<p>What do you mean by adding "quality activities"? Already I am suspect about the quality due to your description that she is the president of "4 major organizations". How major could they be if she has the time to LEAD (not just join, but LEAD) four of them and still have time to do an internship?</p>

<p>Something doesn't sound right. Most likely these organizations aren't as major as you think.<br>
I honestly think the issue is less about "quitting or not quitting tennis" and more about taking a hard, realistic look at her involvements and how "major" and "quality" they really are. It only sounds more strange that she couldn't do musicals "because of the time commitment" and now she isn't willing to do tennis due to the "extra driving time".</p>

<p>My guess is that dropping tennis is only part of a larger issue here. Most schools will be suspect of anyone who is the president of 4 organizations and has an internship, and is on a sports team. </p>

<p>It might be better for her to stick with tennis (if she enjoys it) and drop one of her presidencies. I'd be curious as to what these organizations are if you were willing to share.</p>

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<p>My D is/has been elected to President of the Student Body, President of the National Honor Society, President of Habitat for Humanity, and President of Big Brother/Big Sisters. She is also extremely involved (Supreme Court Justice this year) in Youth and Gov't and is chairman of an annual memorial fundraising dinner. I think that her leadership positions are "major", and they are time consuming. She just received an internship as an "actuary" and it is during school hours next year- last 2 periods of the day- and she receives one credit for it.</p>

<p>Massguy- are you saying if my daughter continues tennis with all of these leadership positions that colleges will look negatively at her?
She does prefer these leadership positions to the tennis team.</p>

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<p>I sorta belong to the "Less is More" approach to college admission. I am exhausted just thinking about your d's schedule. Sometimes if there are Too many activities, colleges may wonder if the kid is doing it out of true "passion" (I hate that term) and interest, or if they are trying to impress the adcom at Harvard. No one wants to see a 17 year old burn out. She should decide her EC's based on what she truly wants to do in a 24 hour day. Her decision should not be based on what she thinks the colleges want to see on her application. Personally, I think class rank of # 1 or 2, an internship and 2 to 3 afterschool activities should be enough. Maybe she can give up the Presidency of 1 or 2 clubs and just be a member. That may give her more time. Good luck.</p>

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<p>When she applies to colleges, they will ask how many hours she spent each week on each activity. I don't know about your school, but at ours, some of those that you mentioned (like NHS) do not actually require a great number of weekly hours. Do Habitat, BB/BS and the annual dinner take up alot of time on a regular basis? I do imagine that the student body president regularly spends a considerable amount of time on that activity. </p>

<p>Also, when colleges ask about the number of hours spent on the tennis team, I doubt that 40 minutes travel per day will have much of an impact one way or the other (especially when the girls' tennis season in only from mid-August to mid-October.) I think I would advise my own daughter to play tennis if she loved it, and to cut down on some other commitments if she was overscheduled.</p>

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<p>lkf- you are right. All of these activities have varying time commitments. Today my D had to do a teacher appreciation breakfast before school (Student Gov't), BB/BS Pizza party lunch, Blood Drive (NHS) and take an Econ test. While it sounds so overwhelming she's at her best when she is forced to time manage. (this is an unusual day)</p>

<p>She was never happy being a VP or Secy of an organization- She enjoys taking a major role in all of the organizations she belongs to.</p>

<p>BB/BS is not that time consuming, where as student body President might be. But the commitments are not every day, and some of these organizations do overlap in their programs. </p>

<p>She will not give up any of her clubs (nor will she join more). But I am guessing that the CC consensus might be for her to give up the tennis because it looks like she has "too much" and also that it is her least favorite activity.</p>

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<p>I think this thread went into a little different direction then what I was looking for. I did not mention initially my D's specific leadership positions because I did not want them to be the issue. My question was more if colleges look at you negatively if you drop your sport in the 4th year. I understand that it may seem as though my D is overloaded but she really is not. (that is why she stopped doing the musicals, and other things) It is not an option for her to drop any of her leadership positions- she really is passionate about them and is not in them for some admission edge.</p>

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<p>My son was also a varsity doubles tennis player. However, he joined an excellent youth orchestra, since he really loves music. He intended to continue tennis, but the tennis coach said he could not be on the team if he would be missing one practice a week for orchestra. So he dropped tennis after only two years. I do not get the feeling that it affected any of his applications. It was very obvious that music is his first love, and I am sure colleges can see that sometimes a student has to make choices.</p>

<p>Sounds like your daughter is involved in some great organizations. I wish her the best!</p>

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<p>savvymom,
Listwise, it looked like my son had way too many thing to do, too. But some of his activities were intense only for a short period of time, whereas some required constant attention 52 weeks per year. I think it averaged out to a managable load (most of the time).</p>

<p>I agree that it wouldn't look bad to drop tennis. Kids who are this involved must make choices along the way. From our application and interview experience, it seemed to me that colleges didn't really care what the activity was...only that it was a long-term activity where the student showed some passion, leadership and commitment. I know that enthusiastic participation in a few select activities helped my son, rather than hurting him.</p>

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<p>I realize I took the thread in a direction you didn't necessarily intend it to go, but my intent was to actually show you that the issue you raised wasn't the issue that appeared to be objectively the issue.</p>

<p>The issue is not the number of involvements, but the quality of them. To be honest of all of the things you mentioned, tennis actually appears to be of the more important quality: its developing a skill, requires practice, working with others, showing dedication.</p>

<p>Just your description of the type of day your daughter had makes me question the quality of the activities she is doing OTHER than tennis. As an example: The time commitment you described on your example day included attending a breakfast, attending a lunch, and attending a blood drive. As president of the organizations, did your daughter have to plan these events? Did she have to hold meetings, delegate responsability, follow up on ordering supplies, advertising, etc? </p>

<p>I also have to read into your statement a bit: YOu say your daughter is unhappy unless she takes a major role in an organization. That role appears to be limited to "president" and not "VP" or "secretary". </p>

<p>As cliche as it is: there are no small roles, only small people. A resume where someone is the president of everything suggests someone who might have difficulty being a follower when they always want to be a leader. This is certainly a concern among college admissions officers today: They don't want a class of Type A people. THey want a community, a team of people.</p>

<p>You also note that a lot of these activities "overlap". All the more reason that one shouldn't be the president of all of these activities. </p>

<p>If the only reason your daughter would continue with tennis is "to not look bad in admission" I think you might have answered your own question: don't do tennis just for some type of admissions concern. There is a certain point at which you need to accept a student will have to make decisions that might result in some opportunities being foreclosed, but if she has more quality time due to tennis not being on the schedule, stick with that.</p>

<p>I guess we also went on with this thread without asking what type of student your daughter is, the range of schools she is looking to attend. There is a nuance to be made here, as I think there are plenty of schools who would like to see a student as involved as your daughter. There are also schools that might just find the involvement in so many things suspect.</p>

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<p>My D is #1 or #2/208 in her class. I purposely did not mention all of her ECS. She is in many other things, and not always President. She will be applying to top tier business schools, FYI. Most of the schools she is looking at, like strong leadership. The tennis issue came up because of her actuary internship. Now that her school lost her tennis courts, she will have to miss last period for every home and away match. This would conflict with her internship. Although I'm sure they would work with her, it might be difficult for her to juggle this schedule change. My D is a team player, she just enjoys taking a leadership role- what is so wrong with that?</p>

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<p>She's in many other things too, in addition to being president of four clubs, on the tennis team and having an internship? Wow. Does she actually enjoy doing all of these things, or is the only reason "she just enjoys taking a leadership role" because these things fill up resumes? I doubt anybody doing that much can possibly have a true desire to lead or participate in the organizations (though I suppose there is some slight chance your daughter could be a great exception to the rule.)</p>

<p>When your daughter makes the decision, it should be based on whether or not she enjoys tennis more or the internship she has. This, and not what you think colleges like to see, should be the motivation behind her decision. The type of "leadership" these "top tier business schools" look for doesn't involve being president of four random clubs that involve little time commitment and passion. They look for the potential the person has to take charge of some single type of thing that the applicant is truely passionate about. Judging by past posts you have made on these boards, the only thing your daughter seems to be "passionate" about is getting into wharton. never a good thing for a person's high school career.</p>

<p>To summarize a rambling post: your daughter's decision should be based on what she enjoys the most. ignore what colleges think</p>

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<p>Wow, Tough crowd. It's interesting that you can judge me and my D based on the few postings I've made. My D's decisions are not made solely on college admissions. That would be ridiculous. I've started threads when a decision had to be made where I wasn't sure what I should tell my D -Such as taking an internship as an actuary or with an Ibank. (She wanted the actuary and that's the one she took) And how many APs should she take, and this thread on how colleges might look at 3 years of a sport(not her favorite thing). My D is a very happy teenager who is enjoying High School and believe me is not spending a lot of time worrying about college admissions. (She doesn't go on CC)</p>

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<p>i'm sorry. i wasn't trying to be tough, just to help answer your question, which was "how do colleges look at only playing a sport for three years". I think the answer that most people have arrived at is that she shouldn't be doing it if she doesn't enjoy it, as you have said she does not.</p>

<p>Nobody judged you or your daughter. We were offering advice on how your daughter should approach the problem. It just seemed that your daughter may have been doing too much, and some people may have been concerned. There is absolutely no reason to feel offended or become defensive, especially if your daughter is perfectly happy with the decisions she is making.</p>

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<p>Your DD has many good leadership roles that are going to be in her favor for college considerations. Tennis is the thing that she can drop with no real issues for colleges - that is unless she has been scouted and/or is looking to play varsity tennis in college - which it sounds like she won't be - maybe time for tennis to take a back seat and can be a club/intermural sport for her in college. The schools will NOT look negatively at her change of direction - and for good reason - the internship and her present accomplishments and memberships in organizations - that she seems to love - will take her far. She has already shown committment in the athletic venue - but it does sound as tho that will not necessarily continue into her college years. </p>

<p>Her ''passion'' is evident in the things she loves to do and participates in. If the question does come up by any of the colleges she applies to - I am very sure she will be able to explain quite well where her priorities and passions lie - and why she chose to stop playing tennis. </p>

<p>Many a high schooler stop activities - for many various and sundry reasons - hey - the injured athlete who can't play the sport - may benefit by getting involved in something else that they may take a fancy to.</p>

<p>This student who has stopped participating in ''drama things'' probably had to do so due to time constraints - even at our high school - if you play a spring sport - you can't participate in certain parts of the drama department - because of the time committments involved in both activities - sometimes you just have to make a choice - there are always opportunties to explain those choices - so..........................go for what makes you happy and for what you enjoy doing - colleges DO understand these situations.</p>

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<p>Dear Savvymom,</p>

<p>I agree with JeepMOM, and think it sounds like your daughter is going to be a wonderful business person, no doubt CEO of something before very long. I know when my S was filling out his apps, it looked pretty ridiculous that he was involved in so many things, but that is the way he chooses to lead his life. At one point, because of the way the EC's run at S's school, he had to give up basketball after three years to do the school musical (it is always in the winter term, and for two years he had the lead . . . small school, smaller pool of talent.) In any case, it did NOT negatively effect his application process. Also, though he played middle school soccer, also chose not to start varsity soccer in the freshman year because he wanted to do the spring play. Again probably because of the small school, the next year he did play soccer, and is the only three year captain in the school's history (I just found out.) My point is, I think a kid should do what he or she feels called to do, to express his or her passion, and that will shine through in recommendations, essays, and the over-all application.</p>

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<p>No, we have PG students who never played a spor before who end up getting recruited! You do have to be good and recruitable!!!</p>

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<p>After reviewing this thread again, another red flag : this "actuary" internship. Why did you put it in quotes? What exactly does it entail? Its interesting that it takes up two periods of the day but she only gets one credit. Does she have to write a paper or report to an advisor as a result of this experience? Was this self created or is this through a program created by the school?</p>

<p>Generally speaking, an internship of this type, unless its rigorously based in academics, wouldn't be as valued as, say, taking another class, AP level perhaps. By virtue of it being done during the school day, its really one less item to think of as an extracurricular.</p>