<p>I hear that sports are very important to a college application. I am considering joining a sport, however I am not very athletic. I know that this will probably keep me from playing a sport.</p>
<p>How important are sports?</p>
<p>I don’t think having a sport is necessarily as important as being involved in some type of extracurricular. Schools care more about you being committed to something outside of class. Sports are a good EC, but, if you’re not athletic, I’d just stick to something you’re good at and you enjoy. I don’t think colleges would simply reject you just because you didn’t play a sport (as long as you had decent grades and some other ECs). If you did play a sport and were good at it, then it might help you (if they were recruiting you). But, since you say you’re not very athletic, that probably won’t be the case, and, like I said before, you’d probably be better off finding something you are really good at and committing to it. Schools prefer to see students following their passions instead of playing an obligatory sport.</p>
<p>I did Freshman football and Track & Field my freshman year. I didn’t do football the next year cause I was too small/skinny and didn’t do track cause I wasn’t fast and kept getting shin splints. So you see, sports are not for everyone, and colleges know that. They don’t expect everyone to be athletically competitive. So instead, I do lots of community service and clubs.</p>
<p>Unless you’re a recruited athlete, the impact of sports on the college admissions process is minimal. In fact, unless you’re good enough to really become a standout, I think those 2 hours a day after school could be put to much more compelling use in an EC you really love.</p>
<p>If you enjoy sports, then spending the time to do them looks good even if you don’t get recruited. If you don’t enjoy sports, don’t bother spending hours a day just to sit on a bench in every game and fill in a few boxes on your application.</p>