By clubs I mean clubs like Habitat for Humanity or Math Team not the sports clubs. I have heard that taking a sport in 9th grade can make you get into a better college. I am equally interested in both.
Yes. Get involved with E.Cs. Sports don’t matter that much unless you
a.) play one continuously for years
or
b.) you’re going to college to play sports.
Clubs that involved academics, volunteer work, and leadership are excellent. Its good that you’re getting involved in 9th grade. If you have time to play sports, then do that as well. Colleges want well-rounded people. However, they realize that some people are not great at playing sports and that some have no interest in them.
Actually, the most competitive colleges often look for “well-slanted” applicants, that is, students who excel at an activity , sport, or instrument at a national. regional or state level. The OP should find an activity or two s/he can follow for 4 years with passion and dedication.
If you are not already involved in a sport by 9th grade it is unlikely that you will progress to a recruitable varsity level. However, one never knows if you might have latent talent or the physique to conquer something like pole-vaulting or
fencing, so go ahead and try if it interests you.
If you’re looking to get into a highly competitive college, yes! I wish someone would have told me freshman year that by the time I was a senior, I should have founded at least 1 club, been a leader in 2 others, played sports and been captain, and done tons of volunteer work. (I over exaggerated a little bit but you get the idea…check out the Ivy threads to see what accepted students have done if that’s what you’re thinking about.) But make sure that your clubs/sports align with your interests…college admissions officers can really tell when they’re just fillers or don’t match you as a person.
Hope this helps!
Do things that interest you, not just because a college might like it. And please do not use poor people to further your ambitions.
For a sport choice, I would pick a sport that people only start in high school so that everyone is basically starting at the same level and your not competing against someone who has been playing the sport since they were 5.
Read “How to be a High School Superstar” by Cal Newport. You don’t have to pay a sport to get into top colleges (but if you like one and want to, then by all means do it).
which sports do you think will be like that? I am not very athletic but I would surely like playing one and making myself better. I am interested in sports but not good at them. Also, I don’t understand some things in clubs, first, what if I involve myself in a club I am interested in but don’t become officer? Second, aren’t smaller, less popular clubs better than bigger clubs then because you can become the leader easily?
Leadership isn’t everything. One of my kids got in everyplace she applied two years ago, including U of Chicago, Swarthmore, Harvey Mudd, Carleton, and a handful of lower ranked school with very good merit aid, and she had no “named” leadership positions. She was not a club officer, a team captain, etc. However, she was a very strong contributor in some team activities (top player in an academic activity for her school), and also in an individual club sport (top 5 finish in our state senior year). Leadership isn’t always about standing in front of the room with a title. It can be about leading your team in terms of performance, as an example, or in recruiting and mentoring younger teammates. She even wrote an essay for once college about this. I think her recommendations also probably reflected it.
Colleges don’t want “lone wolves” who can’t get along with others, but I think the leadership title positions are overrated in the college admission process. They want students who are genuine, committed to the things that are important to them, and perform at a high level in the things they set their minds to. They don’t care if that is music, theater, sports, academic competitions like Quiz Bowl or Science Olympiad or math teams. robotics, 4-H, etc. Pick the things that YOU love and put a lot of effort into them. If you have good grades and test scores, the rest will follow.
I see, but is a club with less children bad because its not popular and will not be very active, or is it good because becoming a leaser is easier?
As I don’t know if your a male or female, Lacrosse(both sexes), Field Hockey(females), rowing (both). One person I know has his daughter in bowling and has his eye on a few schools that would offer her a scholarship. The sports I listed aren’t generally played by elementary or middle school kids. Check what your school offers and make sure to have fun.
This is a popular rumor among HS kids but is not true.
Keep in mind that out of the 3,000 or so 4-year colleges in the US EC’s are important for admission at only a small fraction. Perhaps the most selective 100 or so. You can see what factors matter in admission at schools you are considering by looking at their Common Data Set filings. Most students worry needlessly about EC’s when they’ll play only a small factor or not even be considered!
The question about impressive EC’s comes up regularly on the forum. There is a thread with several posts by Northstarmom, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs from the point of view of the most selective colleges (assuming that is what you are interested in). The post is at http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html
As you will see from that link, at the most selective colleges they are looking for depth more than just participation. Stanford, for example, says
So for colleges that care about ECs, whether or not you merely take part in a sport will not help at all. Set a state record, be voted top athlete in your school, be selected for an all-county team in your sport, these are things that matter. But merely adding to a list of activities where you are “member of this, took part in that” does not.
Which is a way of saying that the only reason for you to play sports is because you personally find it rewarding, not because its going to impress some adcoms (because it won’t). And personal interest is a plenty good-enough reason!
If you are interested in improving your ECs, 2 very interesting articles about ECs that stand out and how to get them (same author, different examples) to go along with the link I gave earlier from Northstarmom are at [How to Be Impressive](The Art of Activity Innovation: How to Be Impressive Without an Impressive Amount of Work - Cal Newport) and [Save This Grind?](Case Study: How Could We Save This Ridiculously Overloaded Grind? - Cal Newport) I don’t buy into his underlying explanation of why they are impressive, but take a look at these 2 articles and I think you’ll get some original ideas.
Rephrased: “are adcoms so dumb that me and a few friends can start a meaningless club and all become officers, boosting are chances at top schools?” Answer: not likely.
ECs for the most part only affect admission decisions if you are thinking Elite schools like HYPM or some LACs. And as people have posted - the key is TO DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO AND WHAT YOU ENJOY DOING. Period end of story. IMHO It is all kids of wrong to do ECs only because you think some AdCom wants you to. Do it for you… because you are interested in math-join the Math Club. If you enjoy running long-distances - join the XCountry team. If you have fun is Espanol - join the Spanish Club etc… and THAT is how you do ECs.
I will say that I asked my kids to play ONE sport so they could get some exercise, but this was from a health perspective, not college ECs. It is really a waste of time to take up a sport thinking you will get to be strong enough to impact your admissions – it only matters at the very top schools if you are good enough to be recruited, and you have to be quite good for that. If you aren’t very athletic, and are starting late, that probably isn’t going to happen. And would you really want to spend tons of time in the next four years in a bowling alley on the off chance you MIGHT get considered at a college that probably isn’t even anyplace that would normally be on your list?
Regarding “size” of the clubs. You can make clubs what you want them to be (that is where leadership comes in). When my D2 joined Quiz Bowl at her high school, they only have 5 or 6 kids. The coach asked everyone to recruit a friend. She recruited 5 friends, doubling the size of the team. She also asked the coach if the team could go to Quiz Bowl camp one summer, and went without the team but with a couple of friends another summer. She and 3 of her friends went on to be the top team their junior and senior year, and do really well in both state and individual competitions. Do what you want to, and lend your energy and talent to bringing in more people and making the club better.
Oh, and my kids did multiple activities. It wasn’t an either/or situation. Their high school does encourage this, so at lots of places kids wouldn’t be able to do quite so many things. But here is an example for one kid’s activities (just stuff junior & senior year): Quiz Bowl, 4-H (competitions only, she didn’t like meetings, and this is not a school thing), club fencing (ended up with a top 5 finish in her weapon at our state tournament, also not a school thing), Robotics, 2 summers at a program where she got 2 classes of college credit and one at an Engineering camp, Entomology (for 4H and for fun, mostly in the summer), food shelf volunteer (lots of hours summer before senior year), bluebird trail monitor (she had done it since she was 8 through senior year of high school and hatched hundreds of bluebirds in our neighborhood,again this was mostly a summer activity), sold a couple of pieces of artwork she had done in a class (art teacher sent some of their stuff to charity auctions), US Biology Olympiad (she self studied, her school didn’t have a team), school writing club, school programming club (senior year only, she joined because she was curious about it). She was also in choir for four years (but that is a class) and helped with lighting and costumes in the theater department (mostly because her friends were doing it, and she did it for fun and to help them).
So you can see that you can do lots of stuff outside of school, you aren’t just limited to whatever clubs or sports are available there. The dimensions are mostly only what you can imagine. You have whole summers to work with, time after school and weekends, and your whole community to consider. Follow your interests, not what you think colleges “want”.
Most high schools offer some sports that are “no-cut,” meaning that all you need to do is sign up to participate. Perhaps look into these types of sports, and you may just find one that you enjoy.
I am a huge fan of students participating in some sport, if at all possible. There are benefits that have nothing to do with one’s “college resume” and have everything to do with staying healthy, building character, and physically challenging oneself.
@intparent The activities you listed are quite a lot compared to my log, and that’s what I am scared about. How important are EC’s and what if you are in clubs of your interests but don’t happen to assume any leadership?
You are in NINTH grade if I read your post right. Of course your list is not long right now. What part of the advice on this thread are you not understanding? Did you actually read the posts? Read #8 again carefully. It answers both of your questions.
If you are not going to be a leader, then be a darn good participant. I just talked with a student who wasn’t a leader, but was on a robotics team and was the only sub-team to actually create a robot that works and take it to competition. Follow through is very important too.
I agree, read “How to be a High School Superstar”. Find out what YOU are interested in and pursue it.