Ok so I’m going into 9th grade and all I’m hearing is college this and college that and one thing I hear too is sports. Do they really matter a whole lot? I wrestle and that’s it. I don’t really like it, and don’t want to do it this season. I do other sports outside of school like surfing wakeboarding mountain biking dirt biking and that type of stuff. I’m not an outstanding student but I’m alright I guess. Just want some advice.
My advice to you is to stop thinking about college right now. Enjoy your summer, try your best in school, have fun with your friends, and spend time doing activities that you enjoy.
Biggest factor in college admissions is how well you do in high school academics. Be sure to complete a well rounded base high school curriculum, plus academic electives of your interest. See http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1995563-faq-high-school-college-prep-base-curriculum.html .
For nearly all high school students, do sports because you like them, but do not expect them to be much help in college admissions. Basically, sports can be one of:
- Not considered by many moderately selective schools that admit by GPA, rank, and/or test scores only.
- A typical extracurricular that does not differentiate between you and other applicants.
- An extracurricular that does provide a bump for you versus other applicants with similar academic credentials. This means state or national level award or achievement.
- A way to get recruited to play for the college, but that obviously comes with strings attached. Some colleges will bend their admissions standards considerably for recruited athletes.
Nearly all high school athletes will be in one of the first two categories. Getting into the latter two categories is rare and should not be expected or depended on at this stage.
Definitely, relax and enjoy being young…but I don’t see any harm in healthy curiosity and the desire to be prepared…so I’ll give you a few tips.
Now that you’re in highschool, every grade counts. Do your best. Complete assignments, study hard for tests. Don’t work yourself into a frenzy over it…but do put in genuine effort. Start learning to make sacrifices for good time management and good study habits. The better your grade point average at the end of your highschool career, the more selective colleges will offer you admission. More selective schools often mean more funding (if financing your education is a concern).
The ACT and SAT tests (most colleges will want you to take one of these) have big sections devoted to English and Math. Try especially hard in these subjects. Work on reading more challenging books for fun. Try to build your vocabulary and review your grammar and composition rules. The higher your score…the more choices you’ll have.
Yes, colleges will want you to have a couple of extra curriculars. They don’t have to be sports. They can be volunteer work, a hobby you share publicly, other school clubs, drama, robotics, 4H, etc. Essentially, they’ll want to see that you have social skills, that you enjoy being with groups of people, that you can be cooperative and work collaboratively. Think of your extra curriculars as your note from home that you’re a nice person who can work in a group. You don’t have to do a million of them. In fact, concentrating on just a couple and having a long history doing them shows you can stick to something and see it through. If you end up in a leadership position, this makes you look like people respect and like you, that you’re trustworthy to get things done. If you can make your extra curricular tie into your intended major…that can help, too. Maybe you’re in the drama club and suggest an Earth Day play to educate elementary kids about conservation because you want to study ecology. It shows your drive and leadership.
Try new things. It’s a big world. Take a good look around before you choose a hard direction. And change your mind a few times, too. Best wishes!
Honestly, you’re just starting out. Enjoy the summer, the beginning of high school, look for new and healthy friendships! If you really want to get a head start (and I’m proud of you for doing so) just start thinking of what you find interesting. Then join a few extracurriculars related to that. Be good and passionate about what you do. Try your hardest at school. If you’re looking for a top 20 university, straight A’s is a major factor. Good luck!
You do not need to do a single thing this summer except have fun. Do not wrestle any more if you don’t like it. My kid never did any kind of sport and got intoa bunch of great schools. There is literally not a single thing colleges care about befroe ninth grade, so make the most of it and have as much fun as possible.
Even good public schools use holistic admissions. You need ECs. That doesn’t have to be sports, but it does need to be something. If you’re good enough to compete in college, a recruited athlete can be one of the strongest hooks.
No. Sports matter very little. Only do sports if you want to. Unless you are an elite athlete, they will not help your college chances.
Sports don’t matter at all. What matters is that you:
(1) Do well academically (GPA and test scores). That is the number one thing that opens more doors to you when you are applying for colleges, and also can help you financially as well.
(2) Do the ECs that appeal to you. They can be inside or outside of school. But find things you like and dig into them. That can be debate, 4H, sports teams at schools, sports outside of school, quiz bowl, volunteering, etc. For college admissions purposes, it does help if you have some kind of demonstrable achievement. But that can vary a lot. For example, one of my kids was into insect collecting. She joined 4H so she could display her exhibits at the county fair, and ended up winning ribbons at the state fair. If she’s really wanted to, I suspect she could have volunteered to help an entomology prof at our nearby state university, or at a nearby wildlife refuge to build on that experience. Or if you are in a sport, get trained to umpire or ref, and do it for younger kid’s teams. If you are a musician, give private lessons to middle school kids. My other kid got interested in an unusual foreign language and found ways to learn to speak and practice it. She travelled to the one country where it was spoken for a summer in high school (managed to wrangle an amazing study abroad scholarship that covered almost all the cost). And colleges thought it was unique, it definitely helped her admissions.
Colleges want students who are academically capable, and are interested and interesting. If you can be those things, you will have a lot of good choices.
For most students, sports don’t matter at all. And for most colleges, ECs don’t matter either.
If I were to be able to go back to summer of 8th grade, I would research all the opportunities available at my high school, including clubs, student government, etc. The best ECs involve leadership, and you have to start early to get positions. Also glance at the classes and any APs offered, as well as any prerequisites to the classes you want. It’s really helpful to have some plan of what you’re going to do or at least try to do during your 4 years there.
Also be nice to EVERYONE. You never know when someone may be in a position of power to recruit you or appoint you, especially if your friends are also high-achieving like you.
Unless you are a recruited athlete sports don’t count as more than any other EC activity. I’d say to do what you like to do.
I would look to see if you can find ways to get recognized in one of the activities you are involved in (perhaps place in a competition) or get involved with a formal group for one or more of your sports (perhaps there are mountain biking, surfboarding organizations etc. to join in your community) as a way to validate that you are involved in those activities in a meaningful way. Keep in mind that EC activities do not have to be in the school, they can be anything you do in the community, with your sports etc.
For now you should focus on:
–Working hard, learning, and doing as well as you can in the most challenging curriculum you can manage.
–When the time comes study for standardized tests.
–Continue your involvement in activities you care about and work towards making meaningful contributions to those activities.
–Enjoying spending time with your family and friends.
I would agree with most posters above, especially the summary of @ucbalumnus, with one caveat to all of the “sports matter little” refrain: one distinction between many ECs and sports is the sheer amount of time varsity sports often requires in high school. I myself denigrated sports team participation back in the day, and many of my friends continue to do so, but I have two sons who are multi-sport varsity athletes and I have been staggered by the amount of time and effort it requires just to be on a team.
During football season, for example, which lasts their entire fall trimester, they have practice from 3:00 (when school lets out) until almost 6:00 each night, they have a mandatory early-morning work out a few days a week, and game days require a nearly five- to six-hour commitment with all of the pregame, travel, etc. Adding in a little time for reviewing game film, and it is easily 20 hours/week. Some sports, like basketball, are even worse because of the sheer number of games and many are on weeknights. On top of this, sports will be physically exhausting–my sons come home from practices and games tired, many times bruised and sore, and completely drained. On weeknights, they shower, eat, and then do homework for several hours before bed. I know of basketball and other sport players who are up doing homework at 4:00 am, or staying up late until 2:00 am, because their games had them traveling immediately after school and did not get home until 11:00 pm.
Compare this to being a member or even an officer in Key Club, or an honor society, or quiz bowl. Those are great ECs, sure, but when admission officers evaluate various applicants’ resumes, they will recognize that a varsity sport is far more demanding than most other ECs one-on-one. Of course that recognition will not overcome a big difference in grades and test scores, but if your athlete has a 3.7 and the other is only a “key club, Spanish honor society, and tutor 2 hours/week” with a 3.8, I think the athlete shows more focus, work effort, and (possibly) potential.
My point is simply that it is not fair nor accurate to dismiss sports as “just another EC” because it is not. It is more akin to a serious part-time job than just another EC. Again, that in and of itself plus $.50 will get you a cup of coffee, but it does reflect differently on your resume than some want you to believe.