I am currently approaching the end of my sophomore year in high school, and I thought it would be an appropriate time to get some feedback on my progress thus far. I am hoping to pitch in the Ivy League. Here are my credentials:
-Freshman Year: 94.071
-Sophomore Year: *95.241
*two more weeks remaining
(this is the #1 public school in the region)
Baseball:
-5’11" 160lbs
-LHP
-Fastball: 77MPH
-Played Varsity this year and posted a 1.24 ERA (best on the team)
Extra Curriculars:
DECA Club 9,10
Interact Club 9,10
Volunteer for Special Olympics
Take Courses on Coursera
Course Load for Junior Year:
Spanish 3
AP Biology
AP Language and Composition
Law
AP US History
Pre-Calculus Honors
AP Statistics
Top Choices: Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth
Nobody can “chance” you this soon. Your junior year and test scores are critical. Baseball will help you, undoubtedly, but colleges will want to see how you do next year, and the Ivy League has strict regulations regarding athletic recruitment. Your grades are solid, but you will need to meet certain thresholds for consideration at any Ivy League college.
So far, you are doing well in school. However, as mentioned above, your junior year and ACT/SAT will play a huge role in your college admissions. If you truly believe you could be recruited by an Ivy League, make baseball (and your grades of course ) your top priority. However, if it turns out you won’t be recruited, start expanding your horizon. Most Ivy Leagues want to see more than just a sport on a resume.
@stepay@pineapple86@Gumbymom@woogzmama Thank you all for your responses. One thing I am wondering though is what type of extracurriculars they expect out of an athlete. Being devoted to a sport doesn’t leave time for much of anything else but eight hours of sleep at night. Are any of you familiar with what they expect in that regard?
If you are a recruited athlete, then don’t worry about more EC’s, but if you are not, then your EC’s are really mediocre. Make sure to really study for your SAT/ACT. Otherwise, not much else can be said.
Before you start trying to make a laundry list of ECs to please 123bbc and pineapple86, consider what you like doing, regardless of what a college might think. No EC will guarantee admission - those schools have acceptance rates much lower than 10%. There are scores of people on here with a gazillion ECs that have been rejected from those schools. I spoke to an USAFA recruiter once, and while a different type of college, it is still elite and selective, and she said that they don’t really like to see huge lists of ECs because that usually means there’s not a lot of commitment in any. She said they like to see to more like one or two with significant involvement. If you like playing baseball and spending your free time doing that, do it. Don’t spend years sculpting yourself for a college that could reject you with only a few minutes consideration. Be who you want to be and if if the Ivies want you, yippee, but if not, too bad for them.
@IVYLeaguelhp - I agree with what some others have said…if you are a recruited athlete (they won’t recruit you if you don’t have the grades, and you should shoot for at least an SAT or ACT score that is at their 25% line), then it matters not what your other ECs are. My just-graduated-from-HS daughter who will run cross country and track in college had three sport seasons – Cross Country in the fall, Indoor track in the winter, and outdoor track in the spring. She had morning practice (in addition to afternoon practice) 4 days a week (Friday was just afternoon practice). She was SUPER busy, so beyond the sports, it was just things like NHS and Spanish NHS and the Feminist Club…she just didn’t have time for anything more. I have a son who will be a HS sophomore in the fall who is even better at running than my soon-to-be-college-athlete daughter, and he’s in the same boat…just next to no time for any extracurriculars beyond the massive amount of time required for his three sport seasons. When this is the case, you make sure to have STELLAR grades and test scores and if you plan to do the sport in college, make sure you are doing as well as you need to be there too. A string of ECs isn’t as important as some think. If it’s down to two with the same GPA and test scores but one has several ECs and the other one doesn’t, then the one with the ECs will probably get the nod, but at the same time if you are doing an EC that takes a TON of time (like a sport), that gets a lot of weight.
Best thing for you to do is to keep getting As and do well on the SAT or ACT…and keep striking them out! As a LHP, I imagine that makes you a little more attractive to a college team. Good luck.
) your top priority. However, if it turns out you won’t be recruited, start expanding your horizon. Most Ivy Leagues want to see more than just a sport on a resume.