Hi,
I am a sophomore at a fairly competitive high school, and up to this point have straight A’s taking the hardest courses allowed. I have one extracurricular activity, chess, that I do VERY intensively, and in which I generally achieve very highly (I routinely place in the top five of nationals for chess, won my state’s adult championship etc.). I also am the president and co founder of one of the largest scholastic chess clubs in America (and we also do other non chess, educational scholastic events a lot, its not just chess at all ) and have a high paying job teaching chess in local schools and privately . The problem is that my actual achievements in chess are starting to decline, no matter how hard I work, as I try to do things other than chess (Im starting to do history olympiad and kiva club, a microloan group, and am trying to find time to do debate, although I have to miss constantly for chess). How worried should I be about the fact that my chess achievements are starting to decline? My rating is starting to slip, and I am growing increasingly doubtful that I can maintain straight A’s in rigerous courses, do things other than chess, and continue to keep up the same standard of chess acheivments. How bad will it look to colleges if there is a steady downward (but still very high) trend of chess accomplishments throughout high school eg. for instance 3rd place in national 9th grade championship, 6th in 10th, and 10th in 11th grade in chess?
You will still be seen as an individual who has dedicated an abundance of time toward chess with the accolades to back it.
In that case, should I continue to hold onto that level of acheivment in chess as long as I can and as high as I can, or strictly for college admissions should I try to persue other less time consiming activities at a lower level? Like I said, I thought I could do both but Im starting to think I shouldnt. And also, I see a lot that colleges want to see “deepening involvment”. For me the highest awards in chess occured roughly around the middle of freshmen year, I am concerned it will look like “swallowing” rather than “deepening”.
Any other advice?
Forget about applications for a minute. Once you’ve done so, ask yourself how much chess means to you and whether you can compete at even higher levels in the future. If you’re really, really good then it would be in your best interest to take advantage of that.
Yet another sad thread…
Look, if you still enjoy chess as much as ever, you should keep doing it. If you aren’t enjoying it as much, you should find some other activity to put your time into.
Seriously. Trying to tailor your personal activities by attempting to guess what a college admissions office is going to think is impressive is a fool’s game, and a recipe for a miserable high school experience. Honestly, this is madness. You can’t major in chess at college, no college is going to make their decision to admit or reject you based on your chess ranking, the whole thing is just silly.
Spend your time doing challenging activities that YOU enjoy, and the college thing will take care of itself.
Take a step back and reread what you wrote. I get the sense that you are actually wanting to get some reassurance about your chess playing abilities. I feel you are worried that your skills are a bit weaker at the moment and this is your main concern. Nick Flynn above is correct. If you are not getting the same pleasure out of chess, take a break for a while. You can play chess your entire life, but it will not ultimately pay your bills. No college is going to deny you because you are not at the top of the chess playing heap. If you are interested in Kiva right now, do that for a while. That is a great organization. Revisit your chess in a bit. Your primary goal should be maintaining high grades. Colleges like to see involvement in a few activities, as in two or three, or even one, or maybe a job, etc… They don’t like to see kids flitting around trying to do 20 different things. Regarding your ranking, you are making mountains out of mole hills. 10th in the nation? Are you seriously worried that looks bad? Again, no college is going to admit you because of chess, unless you also have good grades and test scores. Focus on what is important. Chess is important to you, but not to anyone else.
I seriously am not, I was merely concerned about the appearence of a downward trend as far as college, and clearly I was mistaken based on the advice here. Thank you to all of you, this was excellent advice.
You don’t get into college based on your chess abilities. And they know there are more competitive kids each year, that rank can shift. Seeming to be unilateral in your interests (all chess, all the time,) might pose a higher risk than dropping down from tippy top to 10th place. Mind your academics, look into what your target colleges really want, and be willing to explore.
Thank you, and just for the record I was never concerned about the level of ability colleges would see, only the trend and the 10th in the country thing was just a hypothethetical.
You have to realize that, when you get to apps, you’ll have options how to word this. Saying you’ve been consistently in the top 10 or 25 (or more) conveys enough about the skill and dedication.
Good idea, that will certainly be helpful!
@e4e6d4d5 I see your situation as a good one. Obviously chess has been a very important part of your life … But you are growing and maturing and new interests and activities are opening up to you. That’s a good thing and makes you a multidimensional applicant (when the time comes). Do not worry for a minute about your ranking falling. Keep at your schoolwork and see where the other interests lead you. I think the leadership and executive skills necessary to start the club are something top colleges look for. PM me if you want further thoughts. My D is going through the admissions process now and we spent a lot of time crafting her personal narrative, with good results thus far from a school you’ve heard of. Good luck -
Thanks for the advice!
One other thing that might be relevant: my school has a system for how hard of classes were allowed to take, with a huge jump up in difficulty for junior year (less than 1/5 of straight A students sophomore year get straight A’s junior year at my school), which is why Im trying to make sure that I have a good handle on my extracurricular this year.
Anyone else have any advice?
Why do you need more advice? Please reread what has already been suggested, especially NickFlynn above.
My simple advice, do what you want, truly want. Follow your interest. As for your chess ranking, don’t worry about it. From what I’ve seen, new (better?) kids come up every year and it isn’t a big thing to skip a few places by 11th/12th grade. I mean, you probably displaced someone older, right?
For all that, know your limits. If debate isn’t happening, then you can drop it (tell the club/team). That’s okay. This year is a great time to try new things, but don’t join or continue because you feel compelled to list ten disparate EC’s on the college application.
I think it’s okay to have one or two huge EC’s. You don’t need five or more. You’ve shown not only impressive levels of achievement but also leadership through founding and running the chess club, and the job… View chess as the vehicle for your activities, not as your only activity.
Finally, do what makes you happy and a better person, not to impress faceless people in college admissions offices.
I both agree and disagree with the advice given. I admittedly know nothing about chess but Bobbie Fisher and various others did not only make careers and pay bills but became world famous with chess. Are there colleges that have chess teams that are important to the school? (I have no idea). Is there such a thing as a chess recruit? Will being top 25 in the country be impressive, sure. Will it get you in assuming your grades are on the same level? I have no idea and neither does anyone here unless they play chess competitively. You must have chess friends who are seniors or graduated, where are they going? Do they think chess helped them get there? What do they wish they had done differently? How many other non chess activities did they do?
If you are unhappy with chess, then cut back, if you want to try new things because YOU want to try them, do it. If you are just trying new things for how it looks, drop that hot potato right now.
Well SeekingPam, my chess friends are largely going to elite colleges, including a good number at HYPS but that could be more a function of their academic prowess than impressive chess accomplishments, most of them are elite students, especially in math, I know way more than a proportionate number of people from chess going to Ivy’s, but they do tend to have straight A’s, great SAT’s etc. academically . There are chess recruits with scholarships, although they tend to be lower ranked schools who recruit chess players because of their perception as smart, and those are recruited internationally to find the very best if I don’t know about my odds there. On the other hand, most top schools (including most of the ivy’s) do have chess teams that play in tournaments competitively between colleges, and that are reasonably important to the schools (of course, its not football, Its not generating millions of dollars). They do tend to think that chess helped them get where they are going, but do admit that their academics were stellar, some did a lot outside of chess, others did not, it just depends.