<p>I want to make a decision about taking up Fencing or not. Fencing , well, the equiptment and membership of USAFA memberships are about $400. And once I take it, I'm gonna stick with it (For the rest of high school - I am a Sophomore).</p>
<p>Mind you my school is nationally ranked in Fencing and competes vs. Colleges and North America Cups, etc. It would take some time to reach their standards, but I'll soon be up there.</p>
<p>Do Sports really matter? I want to apply to MIT, Caltech and Stanford . Probably Major in Engineering. So Does it count that even though I am on Math Team (AMC and AIME, Georgia Tech - Junior Varsity Winner) Science Olympiad (Nothing Much Here Really), Robotics Team (State Winner and #7 National Competitor) and am also going to do to Research and try and get into RSI.</p>
<p>So should I do Fencing, even though by the end of applying I will ("hope") to have a strong math and science hook.</p>
<p>Other Club/Activities I am in/do : SGA, Classic Guitar Performances, Hope to Be Part of NHS and Beta Club</p>
<p>Do you want to fence? Can you afford it? If the answer to both is "yes," then go for it. If you were simply considering fencing to try to polish your future college application, spend the time instead avidly pursuing something that you're really interested in.</p>
<p>What's helpful in getting into Ivy League schools is pursuing your interests and doing this with passion, skill, creativity and independence. Depending on what you do with fencing, it may or may not fit the bill.</p>
<p>If you're super-good, you can be recruited for fencing. However, it sounds like you're just starting out...you probably won't be at the recruitable level by senior fall. It won't help for college that much then.</p>
<p>If it's truly something you're interested than go for it. Your school being nationally ranked will definately be a plus because you know there's quality training (rare among most high school sports). I spent my frosh soph, junior year making excuses for why i wasn't doing a sport i liked. I finally did started senior year for first time, and I regret not starting earlier. Definately go for it if you're interested.</p>
<p>I'm a fencer myself and I say GO FOR IT--but I don't mean for the purpose of making yourself a more attractive college applicant. I mean because fencing is awesome. :D But if you don't end up liking it, then don't feel obligated to stick with it. Sell your equipment on Ebay (you can get a good price for fencing stuff if it's in good shape) and try something else. </p>
<p>The most important thing in my book is to do things that you love to do. :)</p>
<p>I'm just curious, can college admission reps tell the difference between students with real passion and resume padders? </p>
<p>I would only fence if I had a real interest in it. Life is VERY short. I know it doesn't seem like that right now, but trust me, this time goes by very quickly. And there are only two goals in this life: to learn and to love and be loved. Spending countless hours on an activity that you don't give a rats ass about is a waste of energy and effort. Just keep that in mind.</p>
<p>My son has very much perfect/near persect SAT scores, GPA, rank and so on. The thing that will take him to an excellent college though will be undoubtedly fencing. Several things to keep in mind:
1. Serious fencing takes much more than $400 a year. With privite lessons, travel (6-7 national competitions a year, etc), equipment that needs to be changed quite often it comes up to more than $10,000 a year. Note though that my son does not fence at a school, he fences at a privite club, so the monthly privite lessons fees (a bulk of $$$ above) are going to be out of the picture for you.
2. Serious fencing requires hours and hours of training a week. My son easily spends 20+ hours a week (commute included), not much time on anything else (except he does play in orchestra plus privite lessons there).
3. Take a look at the colleges that do have fencing (you can get a list on NCAA website). These are the colleges to which fencing will make a difference. Do fencing if you are comfortable with the list.
4. Fencing is a terrific life-long sport. My son LOVES it. Our whole family is heavily involved with the sport, I for example run the tournaments.
5. As far as the skills level goes. Fencing is slightly different, as you can imagine, from football and such. If you look at the list of schools that have fencing you will realize that it is better to be an excellent student and a decent fencer than an excellent fencer and a decent student. If you have academics and a decent fencing skills, coaches will be very happy to recruit you for their teams.
6. Are you talking about PRHS by any chance?</p>
<p>In a word "Yes", fencing is fun as hell, there is nothing better than stabbing somebody in the chest with a sword while knowing your not doing them any harm.</p>
<p>another fencing will proably take up much of my time, about 10 hours per week, but im pretty much leaning towards taking and juggling other activities</p>
<p>Also - if you are really competitive in fencing, then I'd definitely go for it. Colleges like MIT/CalTEch are not just gonna say, 'oh, you're doing non math/science ECs, even though you're amazing, we won't let you in.' ECs just serve as empirical examples of your work ethic and such. Remember to do things that you're good at because the things your good at are commonly the things that you really enjoy. While you shouldn't have to shape your life around the college admissions process, it isn't a bad idea to pursue things you're good at/you enjoy - because what you're good at is also really good at getting you accepted ;-)</p>
<p>Just don't assume you will be recruitable after two years of fencing. At my daughter's club, there were 12 seniors in her "class." All had been fencing for much, much longer than two years, everyone having some nice results in regional and some in national competitions. Only one was recruited (an A rating for two years, fencing camp in Poland, won some tournaments).</p>
<p>I think it is the rare athlete that is at recruitable strength after two years. (Whether listing fencing on the applications to colleges helped more than any other EC I don't know. The kids got into a nice group of colleges, but there is no way of telling causation. Fencing is a thinking sport -- the ones that do well and keep it up could likely be the ones who do well in school and standardized tests.)</p>
<p>That said, fencing is great if you want to do it. Exercise is good for you whether it helps to get you into college or not. I've heard from my daughter that whacking people in the head is also therapeutic (yes, she does saber :) )</p>
<p>Wow, that does sound really therapeutic. I wish I became interested in it at young age. I think my one extraneous (as in starting in college) activity will be dance. </p>
<p>Yeah, that comment didn't have much to do with the topic, but w/e, you know.</p>
<p>Sabre is definitely the most fun of the veapons. It is the fastest and the most dramatic. Yes, I agree whether or not you will be recrutable is not garanteed after 2 years of fencing, especially at a school level. It depends a lot on your club, your coach, your coach's connections etc.
My son fences in a small but highly competitive club, so recent graduates went on to fence for Yale, Columbia, and Stanford, with the new crop applying this fall to Columbia (also heavily recruited by UPenn), Yale, Cornell, and Ohio State. We'll see how it goes.
As an EC, I think, fencing looks good for colleges since it is still not that common and definitely very romantic.</p>
<p>I think it is fairly easy to join the club/team in most colleges, but of course it does not mean that you will be able to compete for the varsity team unless you become very good very fast. On the other hand, almost everywhere there are tons of local/college competitions that you may be able to participate and grow as a fencer. It is a lot of fun, and I don't even fence! (Both my son and husband do though). You can check fencing.net discussion forum.</p>
<p>You can also check out usfencing.org website for the info on your local clubs. BTW fencing in college is usually free/almost completely free compared to a privite club fencing.</p>