Hey everyone, this thread was created out of my curiosity. I see on here a lot really sophisticated and fancy EC’s. I get envious when I see these because I don’t really have any unique extracurriculars. For the most part, I’ve spent my free time over the past four years playing sports. I’m wondering how do admissions officers view athletics?
Granted, I have been a three sport varsity athlete over the past 4 years, and play 2 sports year round on club teams, so I think my commitment to sports comes through pretty strong.
How does my commitment to sports stack up against some of the other extracurriculars we see on the site?
The thing about sports is that it leads to being a recruited athlete. So if you aren’t recruited then, unfortunately, it won’t mean as much as you hope.
Colleges are looking to build a student body and they are looking for well-rounded students. They’ll get the athletic students from the recruited athletes and having only sports makes you very pointed in an area they already have plenty of students.
Thus sports are a good EC and part of a well-rounded application but by themselves not enough. In short, It’s best to focus on getting well-rounded first. Then worry about superstar ECs.
@bomerr thank you for the reply! I definitely see what you’re saying. How would it look to admissions officers if I had my athletic credentials along with extensive work in the community, strong test scores and grades, and work experience that is directed towards my intended area of study?
Grades & Test scores are a completely separate part of the application and have no bearing on the evaluation of ECs (or essays).
Work experience toward your area of study actually doesn’t really matter that much. But it is part of a well-rounded application.
For my common app I made sure to use different categories for all the ECs. So I only have 1 sport listed (crew). Every other category is different. I got volunteering, foreign language club, tech, student govt, etc.
So I wouldn’t recommend using 5 slots to describe 3 variety sports and 2 club sports.
EDIT: BTW I should mention that this in some ways depends application.
Common app is simply 10 ECs so doubling up in anything hurts your well-roundedness.
UC app has 5 different categories with 5 slots in each. So having 5 volunteer/community service ECs would increase your chances.
I wouldn’t focus on them. They do not really matter unless you’re being recruited, but list them as E.Cs. Try to get involved in a club or two (start your own one) and do a lot of volunteer work. Sports alone as E.Cs will not be enough, they want diverse and well-rounded people. Best of luck to you!
This is great information everyone! Thank you all for your input. Thankfully, I do a lot in the community and am involved in more things than just sports.
