<p>hello, I’m a rising male junior, running track and cross country, and i am hoping to be recruited to run in the ivy league. Im curious to see how my overall picture is looking, including my extra curriculars. here’s my general profile:
-4.0GPA going into junior year (took all honors courses fresh/soph years)
-in my highschool’s highest band (will have done band all 4 years)
-will have done spanish all 4 years
-will be taking pre-calc regular and 3APs junior year(bio,eng,u.s.hist) and multiple APs senior year.
- track and cross country all 4 years. with multiple varsity letters. do they like to see that?
-i will most likely be captain of either cross country or track senior year as well.
-in addition i will be the leader of the education committee for an environmental club on campus
any feedback would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Your ECs and grades look good, but I don’t see anything unique. You won’t exactly need outstanding ECs to get recruited, since that’s technically your selling point/best extra-curricular activity, but in the off chance that you don’t get recruited, you might want to build a good, all-rounded app (you’ve definitely got the starting blocks in place). I don’t know the exact details of getting recruited, but you obviously have to be good at running, as I imagine you are. Look up the contact details for the track/x-country team and ask him about getting recruited. I don’t think coaches really care about watching you run, so having good times to send in to him will suffice.</p>
<p>thanks, what do you think would help my app? and what are the good “starting blocks” that i have/you see? any additional advice is appreciated!</p>
<p>Have you contacted the coach? I am a D1 athlete, and contacting goes a long way. Not everyone is Jordan Hasay, a current University of Oregon female runner and national junior record holder, where all the coaches most likely already know who you are.</p>
<p>haha yes i have heard of jordan. i know contacting helps, but i didnt plan on contacting until the middle of my junior year. why do you contacting goes a long way?(i definitley plan on contacting many coaches). any additional advice on the recruiting process or anything would be great!</p>
<p>Something called experience. I am actually planning on apply for transfer spot to Brown, fall 2012. Who knows. We might meet each other one day.</p>
<p>Teddy23, just do anything that interests you. Surely, sports isn’t the only thing that you find worthwhile. List a few activities that might entice you, and I’ll help you out from there.</p>
<p>And when I said you had the starting blocks, I meant that you have taken and continue to take rigorous classes while still maintaining academic excellence, all the while, playing varsity sport at a high level (I’m assuming you’re good since you think you have a shot at recruitment). That’s the starting blocks I see put in place, now just build on that any you’ll have a solid application.</p>
<p>I’m willing to help, so go ahead and ask whatever questions you have.</p>
<p>thank you for your help, i appreciate it. well i’m about to start volunteering weekly for the red cross in my city, and i’ve run a 5k that benefits “heal the bay” and i plan to run more of these (i think its a great way to show my involvement with running outside of school and helping my community while doing it). what do you think? oh, and do you think being part of band and running varsity all 4 years is “semi-unique”/will be liked by admissions? and lastly i feel i can express leadership 2 ways: through being the leader of the education committee of an environmental club on campus/most likely being captain of either cross country or track. any additional feedback besides my questions would be great!</p>
<p>I do not know that I consider that too unique; from a totally objective opinion (meaning, as a home schooler, I can only say what seems normal to me based on my publicly and privately schools friends) I feel that band and running are not too unique. I have known people that have been heavily involved in both. I know that being committed to activities for so long looks really good, though.</p>
<p>What you’re doing is great, and if you really stick by it and achieve a lot from it, then you’re in good shape. Volunteering, however, won’t be the tipping point in an admissions decision. Volunteering on some monumental scale or initiating some unique charity for some unique purpose may be. A lot of people I know that don’t do any volunteering at all have been successful in admissions, and a lot of people I know that have done loads of volunteering have been successful. Likewise, people in both categories have been unsuccessful in college admissions. At the end of the day, it all comes down to you as an entity, not your individual ECs. My best advice is just continue doing what you’re doing but don’t let anything that comes up that interests you go by. That one thing that you let slip could have grown into an activity that you became really involved and passionate in, for all you know.</p>
<p>ok thanks a lot. any other advice is appreciated</p>