I would never encourage my kid to choose an activity or drop an activity based on how it will look on a college application. I want my HS kids to be involved in things they enjoy or are interested in exploring; if they do that, then they will learn lessons far beyond what they get out of being able to “check the box” on a larger list of EC’s they don’t really care about. If he likes swimming – even if he is not great at it – if he enjoys the team socially, is committed to the program, wants/is willing to put in the time, etc., then by all means he should stick with it. Who cares if he never swims again competitively after HS; if it helps him grow and develop now, or is just a healthy social outlet now, then it is serving a valuable purpose now.
Both my kids have done HS cross country and track. Practices six days a week, long meets on weekends, conditioning over the summer, pretty much no time for other significant EC’s. DS was a middle-of-the pack runner. He loved being on the team, always improved each season, but was never a team stand-out. The summer before his senior year, he worked so hard and put in the mileage and managed to win the last spot on the varsity squad (only 7 runners) for the first meet based on the team time trial. The coach, who normally looks to the top 1-2 runners to be captains for the team, instead chose him to be one of the captains because of his commitment. He had to re-win his varsity spot every single week, since anyone finishing from the JV race with a time better than his would have bumped him from the squad for the next meet. He managed to do it, and ran in the state meet at the end of the season. He found a personal love for running through those 4 years … and now, a freshman in college, he’s been training for his first marathon on his own. He runs it in 3 weeks. So, so proud of him and so, so thankful for XC and all the things it taught him about himself. Did it make a difference in his college apps? Definitely – maybe because it showed commitment; but definitely because it made him the person he is.