<p>Well, I'll be straightforward and say that I'm not a guy who's interested in sports. It bores me, and I usually go to unusual lengths to treat my boredom of it in a humorous manner. For example, one guy was commenting on Facebook on how the "Jets would lose" the Football game and I decided to take it upon myself to say "Aren't jets airplanes?."</p>
<p>So I'm wondering how not participating in sports in high school, and using the time to concentrate on other activities such as studying, extracurricular studying, and building up my non-athletic extracurriculars would look on my college app.</p>
<p>Basically: Since I'm not interested in sports, would it be better to concentrate on more intellectual stuff rather than take up one just to be more "well rounded?"</p>
<p>You need something beyond all academics. Colleges don’t want to see you doing 20 different things, but they also don’t want to see you are a one-sided coin.</p>
<p>If you did all academics, your academic shortcomings would look bad.
Something else that you put a lot of time into would fill the shortcomings.
The something else doesn’t have to be sports; band, art, youth group, service, etc.</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s the thing. I’d rather pursue my own interests than B.S my transcript by doing something I’m not really fond of. The point of this thread is to inquire into whether on how focusing on other things might look like.</p>
<p>If you don’t like sports, then don’t do it. Nothing’s worse than spending your time doing something you hate.</p>
<p>Personally, I love sports. I couldn’t imagine life without football or track. I’ve learned so much more from those sports towards developing as a person than I have inside a classroom. However, you can get the same values of hard work, dedication, and perseverance from a variety of EC’s. So even though it’s overused on here a lot, you really need to just “follow your passions.”</p>
<p>Yea, don’t do a sport if you don’t want to, tons of people don’t do sports, those aren’t the only EC that someone can have. If you want, maybe try a sport thats walk-on at your school, like track, just to see if you like it…you never know!</p>
<p>You definitely don’t need sports to be successful in college admissions; indeed, I think sports can often be a huge time commitment with very little return (in terms of admissions, that is–the fitness/friendship/time management benefits are certainly tangible). </p>
<p>I’ve never played a sport in my life, not even Little League stuff, and I did alright (UChicago, Georgetown, and UNC thus far). Frankly, a sport would have sucked away time from my other activities and schoolwork, and I wouldn’t have been nearly as competitive.</p>
<p>Even if you don’t like it, I’d highly recommend playing a sport anyway. Football was probably the best thing that ever happened to my life. It taught me soooo many good lessons about life, helped me get my body into much better shape, gave me more confidence, and, above all, gained me tons of long-lasting friendships that I would definitely not have had otherwise. </p>
<p>Did I hate the long practices and the way my body felt after 2 hours of running? Hell yes. Was I good at the sport? Not by a long-shot. Did I love the feeling of camaraderie that I gained from playing 2 hours of football with my teammates every day though? You betcha. It’s a shame our football team sucks and girls at my school don’t really care if you’re on the team or not though lol. Looking back on my football career, I definitely have few regrets other than not trying harder.</p>
<p>A lot of kids in sports don’t even have too much time for other ECs.
Sports are very valuable for the right kids, but you definitely don’t have to do them to look attractive to colleges.</p>
<p>You don’t want to focus solely on academics, but there are, of course, many other things you can do–sleepandrun has a nice list. There are also other ECs that are valuable and a bit more on the intellectual side, but still look good-model UN, debate, that sort of thing.</p>
<p>If you feel the need to do something sports related, I’d look into other options if general one don’t catch your interest. I am no athlete but got dragged into a karate class by a friend and, much to my surprise, loved it. I’m still in a year later. I thought it would be something I did for the first free month and stopped when it ended. </p>
<p>But if those really both you as well just look into other EC’s. Community service for one is great. You can personalize it to your interests and looks great for admission. Look into choir, if that sparks you at all. See what your school has for clubs and go to a few meetings and see what you think. We have a student who is currently excused from school to go to our state capitol and serve as a page. Internships are great. Maybe a job? I don’t know what you like, but say you were a band kid, go for the local music store. English your thing? Book store. Look around to see what’s going on.</p>