<p>I was wondering if it makes a big difference.. lol.. I might join the tennis team at my school as well as being on a swim team at my local country club and was wondering if that was enough in terms of sports</p>
<p>It would matter if you can play that sport well enough to play on a team at USC. If not, then your sport will just be another EC.</p>
<p>If you’re good.</p>
<p>Very few people are good enough in their sport to play for USC. What does matter is the degree of your involvement in ths sport. If, since I know tennis, you play junior varsity at your high school…that’s nice. And if you play for all four years that is a bit better. If you play varsity at your high school and your team wins state…better. If you play the junior circuit…better still. And if you play the juniors and go to nationals…better yet. Both of my kids were in the top 100 in the US in this sport, but still wouldn’t have been able to be top 6 at SC. But for all my kids (all athletes) their involvement helped them in their lives and yes, in admission.</p>
<p>Okay timeout. People joining tennis or swimming (or track a lot of the time) to get into college is really annoying. There are a lot of people who, you know, play the sports because that’s what they do. It’s fun, they’re good at it, whatever. But please please please don’t join a sport because it will help you get into college, especially tennis or swimming, because they’re most cliche sports one can do for an app (yay docile non-contact sports).
I personally played water polo and swam for all four years in high school and the mentalities of the teams were vastly different. Our water polo team was highly competitive and worked our asses off at practice twice a day, everyday, because everyone was there for the love of the game, and the brutality of the sport frightened away anyone who’s heart wasn’t into it. Swimming on the other, ended up being a lazy sport to relax because half the team was just there because they wanted another bullet point for an application. It’s really annoying to everyone else who actually wants to play the sport for real.</p>
<p>Water polo <3 Probably the best sport you can play in high school. It’s the one thing I’m going to miss at USC!</p>
<p>I’m not going to get into the tennis vs. golf vs. swimming vs. water polo vs. whatever conundrum but…If you are coming to SC and you enjoy playing a sport (but aren’t good enough to play varsity and/or didn’t make the team or don’t have time for a varsity sport) either start or join a club team. They can be very competitive and a lot of fun.</p>
<p>I’m an entering freshman and a trustee scholar (full tuition) and I did not play a sport in high school so let that speak for itself</p>
<p>Well yeah obviously you can get into USC without playing a sport. In fact it’s probably a lot easier to get accepted because you’d have exponentially more time to study. I’d probably have a shot at scholarships too if I wasn’t in the pool over twenty hours a week. I’m just saying don’t join a sport for the bullet-point on your resume, it ****es off everyone else who’s playing the sport for real.
And GetYourOwnBox, I’m glad someone else played water polo in high school here. I joined club polo at the end of last year because I’m nowhere even close to good enough to play for varsity. :)</p>
<p>lol swoopes2, well obviously you can get in without playing sports 
good job though 
btw, arent trustee scholarships given to those with the highest GPA’s ? i thought they were, but i dont know! </p>
<p>also, yea seriously, i think its ridiculous when you see(and i mean this in no racist or derogatory way) every 2300+ asian kid with 4.0 gpa, is also in track… its like… eehh ?? huh ? ********… i mean sure, some of them… but there are waaaaaay too many…
and honestly, dont you think admissions counselors are smart enough to see through that too ? i mean, we on here are kids who have no real experience with this kinda stuff, while they are professionals dealing with thousands of apps every year:P
- i doubt that going to track is going to help you out a lot anyway unless you really are good at it… :)</p>
<p>anyway-- yea man i DEFINITELY think that actually being involved in a sport for the sport, will help… it shows a well rounded person who does more than academics and most sports have a big social factor and teamwork factor… if you do well, then you show that you have those qualities as well :)</p>
<p>I am totally disregarding the racial overtones of the above comments. I am also disregarding the comment that you can get in without playing a sport. I will say this: the Admissions Committee can discern who is a serious athlete and a potential varsity material. They can also discern who plays a sport for the joy of the sport, who is gifted, and yes, who is doing a sport to get out of regular PE. The point is participation for some and others are vying for a scholarship. Don’t you think that the Adcoms are smart enough to figure out who is talented, who is dedicated, and who is a non athlete and make choices accordingly?</p>
<p>DeadMonkey321:</p>
<p>My S also plays water polo for the joy of the sport. He’s just too small (and a tad too slow) to play anything other than club once he’s in college in '10. But he’s going to make the best of it and enjoy every minute his senior year. He’s only on the swim team because the coach requires it for water polo players (but not in reverse for the swimmers.) I’ll be he could have written the same things you did in post #5.</p>
<p>He’ll be applying to USC because it’s a good school (also his Dad is a faculty member.)</p>
<p>ellebud, lol i said i didnt mean that in a racist or any derogatory way, more so a factual way… especiall when both my parents are from india, why would i be racist towards asians ?? :p</p>
<p>also, i dont think you need to be good enough for varsity to have a sport help you get in… as long as you actually care about the sport
personally, a bunch of my EC’s were sports in high school, but i spent in total like 50+ hours a week on it… (soccer 35+, tennis 10+, golfing seasonal, and running like 10 miles/day)… i think it showed i was definitely serious in my sports, even though i didnt apply to any varsity teams etc… + never hurts to have some awards i had a bunch of pretty prestigious ones which i mentioned :)</p>
<p>Sports help but its only part of the picture, you still need everything else.</p>
<p>If you’re joining a sport you should be dedicated to it. </p>
<p>You shouldn’t join it only because of how it will look on your resume. </p>
<p>Dedication. :)</p>
<p>I’ll take it a step further. My kid actually dropped a sport in which he’d been nationally ranked the year he applied to USC (which was clear on the application) and was accepted. He did this specifically because of issues with time for a different, very time consuming EC (related to his major) and academics, despite the fact that he loved the sport. My point being, dedication to a sport is very time and energy consuming. If you love the sport to the point that you’re willing to make the committment, go for it. But do not participate in a sport because someone thinks it might be helpful in college admissions. Pursuing things you truly love and are good at (or are willing to devote the time to become good at) will not only make your day to day life more fulfilling, but it will also help you with college admission.</p>
<p>FindAPlace: I’m glad your son will be applying. That’s exactly the same problem I had when I played more in high school. I was easily the smallest player and nowhere close to the fastest. I just played smart to make up for it. Steer him towards club sports in college, especially polo, because the mentality is completely different there. In Varsity, your sport is your life. It’s why you got into the school so you have no choice, plus I heard it sucks the fun out of the sport. In club, you’re playing with other people who got into the school on academics, so they know that school comes first.</p>
<p>And ns89: hahahaha, yeah i didn’t want to say it on account of sounding discriminatory, but yeah, it really is the asians who are vastly most prevalent in joining a sport for the resume-booster. high school tennis, track, and swim teams are chock full of those who are there to prove to berkeley that they are “well-rounded”.</p>
<p>DeadMonkey321 – I’m glad to hear your thoughts about college club level sports. Sounds like just the ticket for S.</p>
<p>At our HS, it’s possible that the only reason why the tennis team exceeds the water polo/swim team in getting scholar athlete awards (and it’s always close) is because there are more students of Asian ancestry on the tennis team. This is merely a factual statement. As a member of the Booster Club, I also volunteered to make the selections for scholarships for this year’s graduating seniors and being a 4 year athlete was one of requirements. Of the student athletes making salutatorian status (having a GPA over a 4.0 based on weighted academic class GPA), a clear majority were of Asian ancestry.</p>
<p>My conclusion is all that this proves is that some students are aware early on that the competition these days to get into better schools is pretty intense and that academics alone will not cut it. Therefore, a healthy involvement in an EC is required. One of the scholarship winners (a salutatorian) was an Asian. She started as a swimmer and was recruited by the coach to try water polo. As she told us at the end of year banquet, water polo was not her cup of tea but she stuck it out and discovered that she was better at it than she could have imagined, and that it made her competitive in a way that was different than swimming. Sounds to me that she learned something important.</p>