<p>No, the glitzy All-Star traveling squad kids, but the regular high school cheerleaders?</p>
<p>I've been reading threads for a few weeks, seen all kinds of ECs listed, but haven't come across cheerleading on the lists of those with dreams of top colleges. Is there some kind of bias? Is this something you don't mention when applying? Or just an activity that kids with these kinds of goals don't pursue for some reason (and I'd love to know what that reason might be, if you have a guess).</p>
<p>My older D (the drill team officer) would say that it’s because cheerleaders aren’t smart. She would say that to bug her younger sister, who is a cheerleader of both the all-star and school varieties.</p>
<p>But unfortunately, it’s mostly true at our HS. The girls who are serious academically don’t tend to cheer. (I would extend that to my own beloved younger D…she is smart, but not “serious academically” and won’t give a flip about getting into a “top college.”)</p>
<p>It’s sort of a self-selection thing…if you are a serious student and discover than few on the squad are serious students, you don’t tend to fit in and make a lot of friends, and maybe won’t try out the next year. Of the '10 grads, the smartest girl on the squad didn’t try out her senior year.</p>
<p>Note that schools are now adding competitive cheer as a school sport. It made the news around here when two of our girls signed with Baylor.</p>
<p>Students interested in Ivies tend to be the type who want people to cheer for them (i.e. are on the team, not the cheerleading squad) or want to be involved in activities like community service because they want to help people, not because its required of things like NHS. They don’t tend to want to be cheerleaders. Cheerleaders also are more likely to want to go to schools known for their sports like Big 10 schools and similar ones.</p>
<p>I’m a cheerleader and I have been for more than ten years. It’s true that a lot of the girls simply aren’t that smart or driven, but there are a few of us that are aiming at top schools. People are often suprised, but I quickly got over it.</p>
<p>I am worried about potential bias at the schools I’m applying to (Northwestern, GW, UofI, Marquette) that cheerleading isn’t as important or serious as most other sports. Does anyone know anything about that?</p>
<p>I knew two admits from my area who happened also to be cheerleaders. Upon matriculation, they cheered at my HYP alma mater as well. They both attended very rigorous high schools and were at or near the top of their graduating classes. It happens. The elite schools get their cheer squads from somewhere, right? Hard for me to generalize however.</p>
<p>Schools like Baylor now have two squads…the squad that cheers at the games and the competitive squad that is treated like any other NCAA sports team. I’m sure you have to be awesome to make either squad, but there is a difference.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that some high schools have split the squads…a “spirit” squad that cheers at the games, and a “competitive” squad that competes. I really wish they would do this at our school. Our team competes and cheers at games. A girl has to have high tumbling skills to make the squad, and many of the girls aren’t all that interested in cheering at the games. That tends to give the girls a reputation as not being all that enthusiastic at the games, which is pretty true. I wish those who just wanted to compete could just compete.</p>
<p>If a girl has the stats for an Ivy, I don’t think cheer will keep her out of the Ivy. However, I, too, wonder about the perception and wonder if cheer can ever help. </p>
<p>If guy has great scores and grades AND was the varsity quarterback, I think there is a feeling of “wow, he kept his grades up while playing varsity ball…” But if a girl has great scores and grades AND is a varsity cheerleader, do you think there is a feeling of “wow, she kept her grades up while doing varsity cheer”? </p>
<p>In reality, cheer is more time consuming. When the football season is over, the football players have a less rigourous schedule. When the football season is over, the cheerleaders switch to basketball AND start their competition season. Colleges should be MORE impressed, but I don’t know if they are.</p>
<p>Seems the stereotype is alive and well. I did have to laugh at Northstarmom’s post because I used to tell the Ds essentially the same thing - cheerleading is for girls who can’t play sports. D1, my current junior, seems to have listened. She’d rather set herself on fire than consider cheerleading. Then D2 told me, “Mom, I’m 4’10”. I CAN’T play basketball." How does one argue with that? D2’s certainly not the type to ever sit and watch a game (too passive). She’s got to be doing something. And as a former lvl 7 gymnast, she was pretty much a shoo-in for the squad.</p>
<p>However, in the few short months since try-outs, I’ve got to admit, I have been surprised at the behavioral expectations, the service commitment, and opportunities offered by cheerleading. Yes, some of the girls on the squad are a bit vapid, but there are girls like that on the swim team and in the drum line, too. Anyway, given all the leadership opportunities that just land in the squad’s lap - more than I’ve ever seen as the result of d1’s activities - I guess I’m kind of surprised I haven’t seen cheerleading as an EC more often. Except, of course, for the old stereotype being alive and well.</p>
<p>My D (a competitive gymast for 8 years) says that competitive cheer is much more tiring than gymnastic ever was (and that is saying a lot). In the course of a three minute routine, they do standing tumbling, running tumbing, jumps, dance, and lift other girls in the air (or are lifted). D is a back spot and gets lots of serious bruises and fairly frequent nosebleeds from being kicked by the flyer. (And of course, being a flyer has its own risks.) The routine ends and the girls are red faced and out of breath, then the coach says “again.”</p>
<p>In what other sport does every member of the team compete during every second of play?</p>
<p>Harvard, Princeton, Yale and MIT all have cheerleading squads, and while some of the participants probably decided to cheer once they got to university, my guess is that some of them did it in high school (probably at the highly competitive level that is typical of those kids). I bet it’s the kind of EC that catches an admin officer’s eye because it’s uncommon among the population applying.</p>
<p>One of my high school cheerleader classmates (who was also a state-ranked gymnast and excellent violinist), graduated as our valedictorian and went off to MIT. I stopped stereotyping cheerleaders right about then…</p>
<p>“Harvard, Princeton, Yale and MIT all have cheerleading squads, and while some of the participants probably decided to cheer once they got to university, my guess is that some of them did it in high school (probably at the highly competitive level that is typical of those kids). I bet it’s the kind of EC that catches an admin officer’s eye because it’s uncommon among the population applying.”</p>
<p>Still, it’s unlikely that many cheerleaders apply to such schools or want to go to such schools. The very top cheerleaders (and cheerleading is a very difficult sport) probably want to go to the top sports schools where they’ll get national exposure.</p>
<p>Excellent cheerleaders with great gpas probably stand out in admissions to places like HPY because they are so rare in those admission pools.</p>
<p>Who knows. Varsity cheerleader for 4 years, state champ, all star cheer from 5th-8th grade, admitted to PSM! It WAS hard to be around other people who weren’t as “academic”</p>
<p>I wanted to join the cheerleading team and I’m “academically serious.” The timing of school sport practices conflicts with dance class for me though, so I never did.</p>
<p>Cheerleaders from our school’s team will be attending Duke, Harvard, Northwestern (x2) and Bowdoin this fall. A lot of the others are going to large state schools (especially schools with sports cultures - I think people who love that kind of atmosphere are more attracted to things like cheerleading and want to take it more seriously). So some do, of course, although for most of the top schools they dont really recruit so its academic merit</p>
<p>My D who is graduating this year has been cheering for 9 years. She is a flyer on a very competitive Co-ed Varsity high school team. They have been national champs 4 years in a row. This is a serious and very time consuming sport. It requires athleticism, strength, flexibility, and precision. Cheering is truly a “team” sport and requires incredible dedication, along with a fair share of bumps, bruises and injuries. She has also spent countless hours coaching young cheerleaders every summer and fall in our local Pop Warner program. So, cheerleading IS her main EC and the source of most of her community service. To throw the typical sterotype out the window, she is in the top 3% of her class and will be attending Cornell University in the fall. Most of the girls (and guys) on her squad are not only serious athletes but serious students as well.</p>
<p>In my area, cheering at school is for the ex-gymnasts and competitive cheering is a strange hybrid of pageant glitter and gymnastics–not exactly the type of extracurricular that attracts straight-A nerds.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, it happens. Our val last year was both a school and competitive cheerleader and went on to Harvard, where she still cheers. I actually really love the juxtaposition.</p>
<p>Can’t speak to today, but 20-some years ago, I knew someone who was a baton twirler for the marching band at Northwestern (NUMB), had been an award-winning baton twirler in high school, and the story was that she had a scholarship for the baton-twirling. (Don’t know if that part is true or not.)</p>