<p>So I'm a junior right now and I've been playing baseball for most of my life and have been on the high school team for the last 3 years. I was wondering how much weight colleges put on the fact that I will have played baseball for 4 years? A lot of people I know say that it shows "commitment" and stuff like that, but I've grown weary of baseball and am thinking of quitting the team next year. </p>
<p>I'd consider myself smart for an athlete with 3.9 GPA weighted while taking nearly all AP/H classes and a 2180 SAT. Do I really need that extra year of baseball just so that I can claim 4 years of a sport on my application? Or will it be an afterthought to my grades, SAT, and rigor of courses.</p>
<p>Oh, and I'm asian if that will magnify the fact that I play a sport, seeing how all us asians tend to be unathletic and focus solely on academics :P</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Unless you being recruited, a sport is just another EC, admittedly one that usually shows a lot of commitment. Continue to play if you want to, not whether it will increase or decrease your chances of college admissions. </p>
<p>Your last two paragraphs are pretty stupid. A blanket statement that athletes are somehow dumber is both offensive and moronic, and the Asian stereotyping isn’t any better. I’m a 4 year triple varsity sport athlete, ORM too, with basically the highest possible objective academic stats.</p>
<p>“Your last two paragraphs are pretty stupid. A blanket statement that athletes are somehow dumber is both offensive and moronic, and the Asian stereotyping isn’t any better. I’m a 4 year triple varsity sport athlete, ORM too, with basically the highest possible objective academic stats.”</p>
<p>Sorry if I offended you or anyone else at all, it wasn’t my intention. It’s just that my baseball team has an average GPA of about 2.5-3.0…</p>
<p>And please, stop with the political correctness stuff about Asians. Everyone knows that Asian culture is built around schoolwork and academics. THIS IS NOT TO SAY EVERY ASIAN IS LIKE THIS, but generally most are. This is not opinion or racial stereotyping, it is simple fact that Asian culture places much pressure and emphasis on schooling. Yes, I do know that Asians can be athletes as well, the last sentence of my previous post was mainly for humor, but it obviously did not go over well with you. Sorry.</p>
<p>What’s ORM? Not sure what that is :/</p>
<p>ORM = Overrepresented Minority = Asian.</p>
<p>^ I disagree. I think participating in varsity sports is way more important and impressive than being the leader of a high school club. I don’t think a sport is just another EC. Think about it. Anyone can be an officer in a club, but not everyone can be a varsity athlete. Plus, being an athlete is so much more demanding than being in a club. During football season, we practiced 15 hours a week, lifted weights for 10 hours a week, and worked out individually for about 15 hours. It was a full-time job. In contrast, I was vice president in the NHS and probably spent 4 hours a month doing my job. Stick with sports.</p>
<p>I quit my team for the fact that we had to do extra running because 95% of the team was failing at least one class. Ironically, all of the stupid kids had to be on the baseball team.</p>
<p>If you don’t love it, it is a LOT of time to put into something. However I would show that you are replacing it with another EC of equal time commitment. Debate, robotics, or a part time job or internship. The most understandable transition of these would be a job (preferably something that will expose you to your field of study). The point is they don’t want to see you ‘check out’.
It’s hard to argue with a HS Sr. who has decided that he needs to trade in his cleats for a job to help pay for college expenses. Make sure you keep up with your other school related ECs.</p>