I’m a rising sophomore in high school this year and last year I played freshman basketball. Our freshman class was a pretty good class for basketball, so our team ended up practicing with varsity. The only problem with this is that the varsity practice was on top of our regular freshman practice so it ended up being a lot of time committed. I am a decent player on our team who played during the majority of the games, and i will likely be on JV this year, but the same situation may occur where we have to practice for two teams. Will quitting the sport affect the strength of my college application? I feel like I could do more with the time that basketball takes up. Not to be cocky, but I am a pretty good student, and I ended last year with one B over two semesters, and the rest were A’s. The B was a result of bad effort and procrastination. I still ended with a 4.7 weighted GPA. I plan to get A’s on all of my courses this year, and if i did quit basketball I would work on other extra curricular activities… I would tutor at the local Boy’s and Girl’s Club, which i do already, but not often due to basketball. I would also play golf, and i would be on JV this year also. I was also planning on starting a club at school this year to help my app. So would quitting basketball be in my best interests, or not? Thanks in advance.
Please do not do any activity in high school JUST because you think it will look good on an app. It will look a lot better if you really invest your time in extracurriculars you enjoy and are passionate about then do an activity you are not interested in. On the other hand, if you genuinely enjoy basketball, don’t quit just because you think you should be doing other things. Colleges look for passion more than numbers. The only reason I could see for quitting an activity you enjoy is it negatively affecting your grades which obviously basketball did not do.
Scholar athletes look very well on college apps, no matter what the sport.
I’d talk to the coaches and if they aren’t receptive, I’d go in to speak to the principal. A good coach would recognize your initiative and give you the time you need. A bad coach doesn’t have your best interests or priorities in order.
Good luck!
Sorry something i forgot to mention. If i do play basketball this year, it will definitely be my last. Will this one year matter in the long run? Also basketball has become more of a chore instead of a sport for me, and I DEFINITELY do not enjoy it.
Drop the basketball. You aren’t applying anywhere as a recruited athlete so this is just one more EC like any other. If you have other ECs you’d rather do, then put your energy there. And a better GPA trumps any EC at the level you are talking about. As for starting a club to look good - don’t bother. Schools see these ‘resume padding’ activities as exactly that. Your better bet would be to invest more time at the Boys and Girls Club - see if there are additional, more creative ways you can help the organization in addition to tutoring. Maybe they’d like some help analyzing retention rates for their volunteers? Or whether the tutoring they are doing is having an impact? Or some help with fund-raising events? Or some tech support with their web site if you are good at that. (I could go on - the list of needs at most nonprofits is virtually endless.) This is where you differentiate yourself - by doing more than just showing up and doing whatever was expected of you.
Or coach the kids in basketball or another sport at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club…
The key sentence, provided it is doing things that you want and not your guess of what will impress adcoms more.