I have done Swimming since freshmen year. I will be a senior this fall and was thinking of starting Tennis. I heard it won’t help at all to college admissions, and it might even look like college padding.
Do it if you want to.
You only care about college admissions? Do you like tennis? Then play tennis! Will it look like college padding? Then don’t put it on your application. Just do it because you like it. Caring so much about college admissions is ridiculous. I go to Columbia University, so it’s not like I messed up the college admissions process. But guess what, kids like you are making it look like a crazy game that you can win or lose. Your life is a lot more than college admissions. Play tennis is if you want to learn something new, you want to experiment with athletics, you want to have fun with your friends. I challenge you to do three things you love this year and not put any of them on some stupid college admissions. Don’t let college admissions control your life because once you get into a school, you’ll discover you are nothing but an application. Do you want that? No. You want to be a real person. Real people are the ones who help the world. Good luck. Play tennis…I personally love tennis!
It won’t help your college application. If that’s the reason why you are doing it then don’t bother.
A few years ago a friend played golf, was all county. He ended up going to a top 15 school but he said his parents thought it may have hurt him. He was not good enough for a college team but it made him look elitist. Not sure if it is was true. His parents were successful professionals and he was an only child so I think privileged was stamped all over his application so I doubt the Golf hurt him and may have helped to show concentration and training. However he has been doing it for years and he did win in Golf. I would play tennis if you enjoy but I would not highlight on your application (put at the bottom of ECs if you have room). Have you been playing outside of school for years? Taking lessons, been in tournaments all along? That would count as an EC.
Are you captain of the swim team? That would be good.
I took tennis lessons back when I was a Freshmen for just 1 year. Then I quit to concentrate on swimming. Now I want to return back to tennis.
No I’m not captain.
Adcoms aren’t going to waste time assuming you went back to tennis to pad. Sometimes, when a kid drops a sport, they can wonder why. But you could just put two lines in Addl Info, how you liked swimming and the team, bonded, whatever, but took advantage of the chance to re-join tennis. I don’t even think that’s necessary, but it’s an option.
Depending on the tier of colleges, they can be looking for things like the ideas you followed through with and how you took on responsibilities, what the overall picture is, various attributes. I just don’t think tennis, swim, swim, tennis will alarm them. The kids who can worry have bigger issues of one year at this, another at that, usually just “member of,” no real commitment.
I don’t think one semester of a sport will have any significant impact on your application one way or another. Play tennis only if you want to.
There is only limited space for activities on an application. You don’t even put tennis unless you don’t have anything else to list. It isn’t a big deal or not to do it or list it either way. That is getting into utter ridiculousness territory to have to over analyze such things. Many kids who like sports do multiple ones as they can. There is only so much time. My kid did varsity water polo one year to try it for fun. She already did swimming and tennis and she didn’t continue water polo because she needed the time for something else important and she had to choose. I can’t tell you if she listed it or not. It wasn’t a big deal.
And thinking years of golfing would hurt an application rather than help it is also ridiculous, please don’t fear monger with such speculation.
This is what my friend’s mom told my mom. She said she felt it made her son look like an elitist. My mom was impressed he had done so well in golf. Personally I thought that was the least of his problems given the rest of his profile which was clearly elite to begin with. Nice kid, ended up at a top 15 school.
Varsity water polo at least sounds interesting. I think there is no shortage of tennis players in California. I doubt you will have room since you are asked to list your ECs in the order of importantce to you. Also Volunteers and jobs are ECs so you may not have room.
Lately on CC, a lot of chat about elitism. I disagree.
And there is plenty of room to include tennis, if OP wishes. You just reconsider some rinky-dink, irrelevant activity someone told you is important because it’s a “passion.”
@SaphireNY: I think your friend’s parents’ discussion of “making him look elitist” is full of crap. I agree with your reading of it. Second and triple guessing how their son “looked” like to colleges is ridiculous. The reader who spends 22 seconds looking over the EC list isn’t going to equate golf automatically with elitist. There are plenty of people who come from higher incomes and can afford very nice ECs. The defensive posture of “they might think we’re elitist” is galling to me. To the OP: it’s been said before. If it doesn’t detract from your academics and you’d like to sample it – (who knows? It might lead to a lifelong fulfilling hobby), go for it. If you’re looking to beef up your application package, the please see it for the shallow straw grasping as it is and drop it. You’re better than that.
You’re not looking at this the right way. ECs help because it shows that students have a range of interests. It doesn’t show that they had the dedication to do the exact same thing for 4 years. If you enjoy tennis, then you should play tennis. If your primary motivation is to look better on a college application, then skip it.