How many on each activiity? How many hrs all together? At what point does it become too much and interferees with studying and hw? Thanks
It’s up to the kid. Both my kids in HS were varsity athletes for two out of the three seasons. In the fall, it was 4 days (2.5 hours practice) and a long day (5 hrs) on Fridays. In the winter, 5 days of practice and a 10 hour competition each Saturday. They “rested” in the spring but still took private lessons and conditioned – maybe 6 hrs/week.
They had no room for other ECs – this (b/c it was both physically and mentally exhausting) was enough. But they and their teammates pulled it off and had the highest varsity team GPA in our school district for years and years.
My oldest also attended a tippy top HS and managed a solid GPA. My younger one attends the tough local school and is simply very determined to do well. It’s a tough balance but they manage(d) it.
(My older one is competing in college – her practice schedule is actually lighter than the HS! It’s actually less of a grind now than before!)
My daughter is in 11th in an IB school. She has violin (1 hour lesson per week, 30 minutes practice per day), soccer (practice after school for an 1.5 twice a week - matches on weekends), theatre production (this semester only, she is the assistant director - may be twice a week after school for an hour plus some weekend time). She will have to manage her time carefully - especially school is over an hour away from home some there are long travel times involved as well. She has always had a similar schedule and been at the top of her class. This year she feels the stress a bit more.
It depends on the child and also on how accommodating the school is with respect to school based activities. I know that in some schools teachers have no obligation to allow students to make up work/reschedule tests if they miss school for activities. IMO it is harder to balance ECs in those schools than it is in others where the school is more supportive.
@CValle …wow. I would say her schedule might be doable for this year, but late summer,early fall for the full IB diploma is insane. Add in college applications and it is a brutal recipe.
Almost every IB diploma senior we know who was previously maintaining their schedule with a varsity sport has dropped their fall varsity sport.
Make sure you guide her in planning her summer to allow plenty of open time to maybe get college applications done and complete her EE.
(not trying to nose in, just lessons from a senior IB diploma parent)
T26E4 - I think you nailed it… My kid’s HS ECs were great prep for college schedules, and later, job schedules, where employees are encouraged to participate in company club activities/sports. Since none of my kids had 9-5 jobs starting out, its a good thing they had all the EC activities to prep them for real life! 
This is really interesting. It’s amazing how much these kids can do in a day. Please keep the responses coming!! Thanks.
I think it also matters if an EC interferes with home life not just studying.
Way too many ECs have practices that are during family dinner time on a regular basis to the point that you don’t see your kid all day. It feels like the school is raising them instead of you.
Thinking about #3, I would say between the athletic schedule (3 season athlete), school club meetings, etc. probably 15-20 hours per week excluding game days. There was probably another 2-5 hours per week he spent on non-school related activities during the school year.
My kids go to one of those über-competitive high schools … average SAT of 1300 / 1600, 8% of the class are national merit semifinalists, 85% of the kids get 4’s and 5’s on the AP exams, etc.
IIRC, My last kid who graduated there took 6 AP classes as a junior (Calculus BC, Chemistry, English Lang, European History, Spanish, Computer Science). That was the busiest year. The biggest variable was whether his sport was in season or not. Here’s how I’d guess a typical week broke down for him when his sport was in season -
35 hours / week : official school day
27 hours / week : sports and EC's
27 hours / week : homework, writing papers, studying
20 hours / week : eating, showering, driving to school, etc.
He could just barely get to bed in time for 8 hours of sleep (pretty much needed 8 hours for his sport). Not easy, and there’s hardly anytime for socializing or going out with friends … maybe a couple hours on Saturday night, plus a few hours texting during homework time. Weekends have to be devoted to sports and schoolwork.
When his sport was not in season, he probably only spent 12 hours / week on EC’s, so he could go out with his friends for 6 hours each night on Fridays and Saturdays.
In our school district taking a schedule like this is pretty much a requirement to get into a tippy-top school unless you’re a legacy or a recruit. Deciding to curtail his social life for 3-4 months a year was something he (and his parents) thought was worthwhile, but it was definitely his choice to make the sacrifice. It helped that it wasn’t year-round.
My son spent about 12-15 hours a week on music practice and ensembles, then during golf season, about another 10-15 hours on golf. In addition to a commute of an hour each way to school and a full class load. Now that he is in college and doesn’t commute, he has scaled back the music to about 5 hours a week and golf TBD and feels like he is on vacation because he has so much free time. He is threatening to do laundry today!
My son is a Jr. this year, he has 3 AP classes( Chem,Calc A/B, APUSH), Spanish 3, Digital Engineering,English,And Art. In October he will be taking a UC approved online Art History class. His Ec’s are year around club swimming 6+ hours a week. ACT/SAT tutoring which is 2hours a week. That’s it. He does need to do homework. and sleep ! My husband and I both feel that he already has enough on his plate to deal with. Oh, he also has ADD.
S was a 3-season athlete (cross country, track), so he had 2.5 hours of practice every day except Friday, when there was usually a meet that took about 5 hours. A few times a year there were weekend meets that took an entire Saturday. He had a 1 hour violin lesson once per week (plus transportation time), practiced about an hour a day, and did the youth symphony once a week for most of the year (roughly another 3 hours, including transportation time). And All-State orchestra and the regional equivalent, each of which was a 2-day thing. And he did some string quartet group things, some of which were weekly in the evening on a non-youth symphony, non-violin lesson day, some of which were long 3-day weekends. That was probably another 1.5 hours per week. And he played in the pit orchestra for the annual school musical. I have no idea how much time that took. He did some other school activities such as Model UN, but they were a weekend here and there. Once a month he went to the soup kitchen to volunteer with me.
So during a regular week: athletic schedule, typically about 15 hours, music about 11 hours. Some weeks a lot more.
Academically, he took the maximum possible course load–2 foreign languages, English, Math, a lab science, history, plus required electives–ironically, given his ECs, including several semesters of music and gym–leaving him with one study hall period per week. The last two years he didn’t even have that, because he was meeting with teachers for an independent study AP. He took 8 APS: Modern European History, French, Spanish, French Lit, Bio, Chem, Physics, and Calc BC.
It sounds like a huge amount, looking back, but it didn’t seem as if he felt at all stressed at the time. I think one thing that helped was that most of his best friends were also running track, so it worked as social time also. I’ll have to ask him.
Both girls are/were 2 sport athletes and in IB. CIF limits athletics to 18 hours a week. All the coaches seem to max that out
Girl scouts is a couple of hours a week plus a few weekend campouts. They pack a lot of homework on those.
As mentioned above varsity athletes don’t usually have a ton of other stuff if they are in academically challengingredients classes.
My full IB Diploma kid was an athlete and musician – in fall, 25-30 hours a week, and spring probably 20 hours. It kept him sane, as his sport was always his way to relax. He didn’t have the highest gpa of his peers and friends (3.7ish), but I suspect it wouldn’t have trended upward too much without his ECs since those are what kept him happy and healthy.
My D1 was in volleyball (captain her Jr. and sr years). The killer there was weekday games. Bus to and from the game if it was away, jv game before varsity. Coach required them to watch/cheer jv (and jv to do the same with varsity). That usually was 6 hours on a weeknight.
D2 picked a more flexible sport, club fencing. That was about 6 hours per week unless there was a weekend meet.
My son took part in club swimming 20+ hrs/week of actual swimming/dryland plus additional hours for swim meets. High school swimming during their season about 15/hrs week plus additional hrs for swim meets. Lifeguarding on weekend afternoons when available, 4 hr shift. He was busy! His sister had dance classes (about 12 hrs/week), tutored an elementary student 2 hrs/week.
D1 did Volley ball her first three years. The bus wouldn’t get back until 9 pm some school nights. Crazy!
I’m blown away by how much these kids were able to do each week. Do you think what they did and how much they did, played a big role in their college admissions?
YES - without a doubt; however, my kids were mostly applying to very selective schools.
Nevertheless, I think it is very unhealthy when I hear parents say that their children are doing so much that they can only get 5 hours of sleep every night. In my opinion, that’s usually a sign that something is wrong or that the parents are exaggerating.