<p>Hey guys.....just starting out on CC. So I wanted to ask does harvard consider sports when looking at applications? LIke if you do any SPORTS or not? Because I don't do any sports right now (starting 8th grade this fall) and I was owrried that might affect me in the future. Thanx!</p>
<p>Sure they “consider sports”. Being a high performing (recruited) athlete can dramatically help you. But not being an athlete will not count against you. </p>
<p>Think about it this way, they might be impressed if you were an award winning concert pianist - but that doesn’t mean that they look down on applicants who don’t play an instrument. </p>
<p>Just make sure you do something special with your time outside of school.</p>
<p>Being a recruited athlete is a big plus, as it means that a Harvard coach has made a commitment to a player and has agreed to use one of his or her “slots” given to them by Admissions on that applicant. Being just an athlete – even a great one – is not that big a plus; it’s just another EC, like doing speech & debate, news writing, art, music, dance, theater, slam poetry etc.</p>
<p>Athlete = HUGE HUGE BENEFIT. The secret to getting into Harvard or the other Ivies (except Yale) is SPORTS!!! Some half-wit I knew locally who happened to be a good lacrosse player got in. NO other qualities whatsoever.</p>
<p>^^ And I bet that lacrosse player was admitted because he was recruited athlete!</p>
<p>Recruited athlete = huge huge benefit, but a great athlete who is not recruited ≠ huge huge benefit </p>
<p>While all the posters’ facts are true, the fact that "Because I don’t do any sports right now " means you’ll not likely become a varsity level athlete much less a college recruitable athlete. But what does that mean?</p>
<p>Nothing – unless you wish to be considered for one of the Service Academies. Yes Harvard considers sports. Just like they consider chess club or HOSA or DECA or Boy Scouts or your city chorus or a job at Burger King or volunteering at the Senior Home. </p>
<p>Savvy?</p>
<p>Also seeing as you’re 12-13 years old, it’s hard not to want to chase you away from this site which is filled with Ivy name obsessed kids w/o a single idea of what it takes to be a great scholar or a person of impact and couldn’t recognize themselves as being a name-chaser if they reached out and punched themselves through a mirror. By all means, seek to excel. By all means, stop seeking “Harvard” or “Yale” or “Stanford” because they are only abstractions at this point.</p>
<p>If you happen to be an excellent athlete and become recruited your athletic participation can be a big advantage.
Having said that, your interests are what they are. Be the best you can be at the things you are most passionate about. Don’t attempt to be something your not with activities that you don’t enjoy or are not interested in.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to do sports, don’t: that won’t affect your college chances.</p>
<p>I agree that it is worrisome that you are thinking about college admissions so young, and thinking about gearing your high school life to those concerns. Please try to enjoy high school, make friends, and follow your interests naturally, and eventually, when the time comes to apply, you will have choices that fit you- that may or may not include Harvard.</p>
<p>You should give a sport a try in HS, not for college, but for yourself. Sports teach teamwork, are good for your mind and body, and they teach you how to lose as well as win. If you don’t think that you have skills necessary for sports such as tennis or basketball, there are always the more stamina sports such as cross country and certain track events. If you have a certain interest now is the time to try to get into a summer camp and try to make a shot a JV next year. Playing a sport will make you a more rounded student and is a good alternative to staring at another screen.</p>