I am currently a sophomore (school’s about to end, so soon to be junior) and I’ve never took/done any sports my whole life. Growing up, all my parents cared about were grades but now I know that extracurricular actives matter too. I do Key club, Art club, Medical club, dance/speaking organizations for my Bengali community and I will be volunteering at a hospital over the summer. During my junior year I will be trying out for NHS, Mu Alpha Theta (Nat. Math HS), Nat. Sci HS and Circle of Friends (helping people with disabilities). I also take honors classes, AP classes and I will be taking college classes next year (I’m in a program called ACA which allows be to graduate with an Associate’s Degree by the end of high school). My GPA is like 3.8-4.00
Would this be a fine because everyone I know takes sports and I’m kind of worried that it will affect me greatly. Let’s say I tried out for Ivy League colleges, would I not get in because I don’t do any sports? I was going to try out for either volleyball or tennis this next year to make it look good on my college application but I really don’t want to.
I don’t think the lack of sports will adversely affect you. Do activities you enjoy. However, classes at a community college rather than AP’s may at the Ivy’s.
@Goldenbear12, Colleges generally look favorably on students who’ve played a sport. However, it’s certainly not anything essential, and I’d imagine the vast majority of college counselors would advise you to explore what you want to explore, not to do something just because it will please them. That will help you become the best person you can be, which is the most important thing. After all, one of the most important things you can be doing at this stage of your life is learning who you are, what’s important to you, what makes you better, who makes you better. AND doing what you want will very likely make your application the strongest one possible because you will be living your life authentically and presenting an authentic version of your self, and the school can then evaluate you as you.
I know one highly ranked university where I do think they put a strong emphasis on presentation and social skills, and I think it looks particularly favorably on sports participation in high school. Would you want to play a sport just because you thought it would be important in college admissions, get accepted to this school, and then be around a lot of people who have been chosen specifically because they have different interests than you?
Always be yourself and things will work out in the long run. Good luck!
For the college admission purposes, getting into sports now is kind of late anyway, I somehow doubt that you would be able to get into varsity teams in the remaining two years of your hs. So don’t worry about it.
But for your own health and happiness, I think it is never too late to be active and start exercising. A good night sleep, a sweat-dripping spin class, and a mouth-watering gourmet meal are some of the best things in life that you could give to yourself.
Unless you are a recruited athlete (which few people are) it makes no difference if you do a sport or not. A sport will count the same as any other activity you choose to do. There is absolutely no reason to do a sport if that is not where you want to spend your time – your activities should reflect things you enjoy, find interesting etc.
Playing sports perhaps may show your overall well roundedness, but as others have already said I wouldn’t start a sport now just to dress up your college application. Since you’ll unlikely become good enough to be recruited it will only be counted as another weaker EC. But do somekind of regular physical activity to keep your body and mind in healthier state.
OP, there is a sticky on the top of the Chances forum titled ’ “Those ECs are weak…”- So what’s good?’ Read thru it and decide for yourself how your ECs stack up
As for a sport team, colleges don’t treat this any differently than other ECs unless you are a recruited athlete. They don’t have a checklist that expects students to play a sport even though the stereotype of the “well-rounded” student heading off to a top school is popular in culture such as movies and you’ll hear it a lot from HS friends making up “facts” they think are important in college admissions.
The US system is different from that in other countries
