Hi
So I’m a high school senior and was wondering if me not taking any sports throughout high school will impact my college application? I want to go to a competive college like University of Illinois UC. It’s not like I don’t like sports, I love basketball but got cut my sophomore year. Another year of practice and I got cut again. I was devastated after this and didn’t even feel like doing anything else, like track or cross country. I feel like I’ve dedicated so much time to basketball but it didn’t pay off. And now I to focus on college applications and getting my ACT score up. I might do spring track or winter track, (which I’ll not be able to put on my application anyway). I still workout everyday and play basketball outside of school. Any advice will be helpful. Thank you!
They care that you have extracurricular activities of some kind. Doesn’t matter at all if it is sports – theater, school paper, yearbook. Quiz bowl, speech, debate, etc. Or activities outside of school – 4H, camp counselor, volunteering, tutoring, politics, etc. Students who are busy and engaged with their community have a better shot at admission than those who don’t have a lot to show for their free time.
Do you play basketball outside of school in an organized way? A league or club?
Yes, I am part of a ton of clubs like newspaper, debate, STEM, Op smile, but most of them I started in my senior year only.
I only played basketball in the rec league for two years, thats all.
What do you do beside attending school? Colleges don’t care if it’s a sport or something else, but they want to see continuous involvement in activities of your choice - as explained above can be music, 4H, yearbook, etc… Or if you have obligations, a part time job, family obligations… You just can’t have nothing, especially for schools the caliber of UIUC.
@derozan All those count as ECs. Colleges don’t care if you played varsity or rec if you’re not playing for them.
So I could also put rec basketball in my application?
What did you do outside of school work Sophomore to now. Also what did you do Freshman year in your home country outside of schoolwork. When we see that, we’ll know if you need to.add rec BB.
For perhaps the 10 or 15 top schools in the US you MUST have great grades, rigorous classes, strong SAT or ACT, great references, great essays, strong ECs, and either a hook or a lot of luck.
For the rest of the many great schools in the US you need at least some of these attributes. However, if you grades and test scores and references are all strong then only “okay” ECs (which it sounds like you have) will be sufficient at least at some very good universities. UIUC is a very good school, but is not one of the top 10. Thus my guess is that it probably falls into this category. Whether you will get in I can’t guess, but don’t give up due to a lack of a varsity sport.
“I still workout everyday and play basketball outside of school”
This is an EC, and I think a pretty good one. If you have been doing this for years, then it is worth mentioning.
@DadTwoGirls I’m pretty sure @derozan is STEM. UIUC is a top, top school for STEM majors like CS and will be very difficult to get into. For grad school UIUC is #5 in the country. And it’s listed #12 here http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/computer-science-degrees-best-roi/
If you’re top 10% with a 1450 SAT, as long as you’re not applying to Engineering or computer science, limited ECs will be fine with UIUC.
If you’re only top quarter with a 1250 SAT, ECs won’t help.
Your level of involvement is good but only if you have the stats.
What other colleges are you looking at?
Have you run the NPC? Can your parents afford the costs our if pocket (from income and savings)?
So in my 9th grade in my home country, I played for my school team U - 17 during 9th grade and also played for a state club during the entire year.
I want to do something in STEM or CS mostly.
Getting into UIUC for CS (college of engineering) is really hard, so I have decided on CS and Astrnomy which falls in college of liberal arts and science.
My involvement in soph year was nothing tbh. Then junior year, 2-3 clubs, and now in senior year I am in 6 clubs.
I am also taking just 2 AP classes, (AP CS and AP Chem). Does that look bad on my transcript that I have only 2 AP’s the entire year? I also had 2 honors junior year (Physics and Alg 2) and 1 honors (pre calc) in my senior year
The six clubs for senior year won’t help much. Too late. You did nothing after school sophomore year. ECs aren’t just clubs.
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-counts-as-an-extracurricular-activity-788878
Argg that sucks :(. I was so new here that I was not sure what to do. Though, I did my sophomore community service hours in different places. Does that count? I also volunteered for St. Baldwicks foundation.
^Yes. Good. Read that article and think about what you did. Things for your family, religious, tutoring or caring for younger siblings regularly, hobbies???
What is your home state?
Yes, read the article, makes sense.
New Jersey
You’re applying to Rutgers, NJIT, Rowan???
Include your rec BB and personal fitness plan which includes weight training.
Are your grades in line for Rutgers or NJIT?
I am probably biased wrt Rutgers because I went to a top graduate school with several strong students who had done undergrad at Rutgers and I worked with a couple of excellent co-workers from Rutgers, but from what I have seen you can do very well with a degree from there.
Yes, I’m looking forward to applying to those colleges too, including TCNJ.
Include the rec BB, fitness, weight training in the activities section of like the common app or something?
^Yes. Include rec BB and weight training, the volunteering. Better to see that than wonder if you were just playing video games. Rutgers is also a top ranked school for CS. Still will be hard to get into but maybe easier than UIUC. Are your stats good?