<p>I've been swimming for 10yrs and I'm one of the best swimmers on my school team. I'm not very "team-spirit"-y so I lost this years captainship to someone else who is pretty bad at swimming plus is not hugely involved on the team... I really feel this is unfair to me but I don't think there's much I can do about it right now. I'm just wondering how important it is to colleges that you're caption of a varsity sport? I also have almost no leadership positions... and I think that's a problem which is why I really wanted to be captain. I have an award in swimming from our league which is good but that doesn't really show my commitment to the sport.</p>
<p>I don’t think it matters much at all honestly.</p>
<p>Even though I’m home-schooled, I swam on the swim team of the local high school. Senior year, all of the senior guys became “Co-Captains.” It was hardly a big deal.</p>
<p>Captain status means you are not just a participant, you obviously have shown leadership and skill. Colleges like this. Multiple years as captain means more. </p>
<p>lolcats, it’s only not a big deal if you don’t make it a big deal. Every one of those people who were named “Co-Captains” can put it on their college/scholarship apps, and it will help them.</p>
<p>i’m not trying to be obnoxious here but i have skill in swimming, and leadership though it’s hard for me to show it since i’m not naturally outgoing (i don’t cheer all that much). but then again, the girl that got to be captain this year doesn’t cheer that much either. she just baked brownies for our last meet and then reminded people who didn’t know the juniors (all the people who ran for captains were juniors) that well that “remember, i baked brownies. and if i’m captain, i’ll bake everytime”. i personally heard her say that. i don’t like… selling myself to people just to get the votes and personally, i thought (along with a lot of members of the swim team) that i would become captain since i swim the best among the juniors and have been on the swim team the longest. </p>
<p>so it’s extremely not fair that though i definitely have more skill, and at least equal leadership skills as the other girl, colleges will not see that.</p>
<p>^something similar happened to me…but it was more favoritism/connections that got this girl captain (her mom was friends with the coach). Co-Captain means something but probably not that much.</p>
<p>just because you are the best swimmer does not mean you should be captain… Being a captain does look good, but it won’t break or make your chances.</p>
<p>If you are talking to the coach, then being captain won’t matter nearly as much as your times. The coach also would want to know that your personality will mesh with the team. If you are quiet, that’s probably fine.<br>
As long as you have other aspects to your application, then the leadership that team captain brings may not be critical. Yes, schools look for leadership, but since it doesn’t work to have EVERYONE be a leader, schools also look for committment, teamwork, and passion for what you do. Your essays can help get that across.</p>
<p>Being captain of a varsity is pretty important. But I don’t think that you’re particular situation will hurt your chances. Remember academics come first. ECs are just frosting.</p>
<p>I have a lot of kids who play sports so I wondered about this too - at least in our high school, I don’t think it makes a whole lot of difference to admissions. Colleges KNOW that many schools just have a policy of making all the seniors on the team “captains” to discourage senioritis.</p>
<p>I kind of know how you feel, xiaohyolee. Same happened to me just… a few hours ago except for a JV team.
I’m basically number 1 on my team because I’ve beaten everyone multiple times (tennis) and I’ve been on the team for some bit. I didn’t get voted captain/co-captain because I’m really not team spirited either, I’m more shy. Plus I’m exactly the same as you, I hate asking around and campaigning a lot from the very beginning.
I hope it doesn’t count much.</p>
