<p>
</p>
<p>They are involved in the arts, working at part-time jobs, going to the gym, volunteering, involved in student government, writing for the school publications, on the academic teams, active in youth groups or scouts, etc. </p>
<p>One of my kids was a travel soccer player for 5 years, but gave it up to pursue another (non sport) activity. I have nothing against sports or travel teams, but there is a whole world of activities outside of sports.</p>
<p>Many activities in which a student participates at a higher level are time consuming. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Haha…perhaps you meant 4-6?</p>
<p>My son was on a no-cut XC team. Some kids worked hard over the summer and others showed up in the middle of August very out of shape. The good thing about a sport like XC, though, is that the slow kids don’t hold the fast ones back. Only 7 kids could run varsity in any given meet (there were other categories like JV1 and JV2) so if you weren’t really good and really committed, you’d be in the pack with everyone else.</p>
<p>And by the way, this inclusive approach has never hurt the school–they make it to state every year and won two years ago.</p>
<p>It’s not a matter of sports being better or requiring greater dedication than other activities. I have one who was extremely dedicated to and excelled in a single sport. Aside from NHS, Mu Alpha Theta and a few other clubs, he had little time for much else. But he was happy doing what he loved. Yes, sports helped to instill discipline, develop leadership, etc. and were a positive influence in his life. That doesn’t mean that sports are the only way to develop these attributes. My other child isn’t the least bit athletic. She was involved in chorus, quiz bowl, yearbook, newspaper, and volunteering. She’s also an avid reader and held a part-time job throughout HS. Neither kid spent much time in front of a tv or playing XBOX. </p>
<p>My kid involved in the arts was really no less busy, though it was less out of state travel. But, it’s not like she was sitting around doing nothing. Neither had time for TV, but they managed friends and dating and study and ECs, and I don’t know, they both seemed pretty happy and still do. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>They are, but having four kids with varied interests I see this one from both sides. Sports does eat more time than the robotics club, Scouting, or building the solar car. And certainly more than the yearbook or French Club. A lot has to do with the time wasted travelling. In many sports, there is travel during the week and also virtually every weekend. With robotics, mathletes, and the solar car, there aren’t nearly as many competitions. Even the school play, which can be very intense for a few weeks has a lot more downtime during rehearsal than kids do at a sports practice. Kids can often get some homework done during rehearsals. You can’t do that on the Lacrosse team. </p>
<p>One thing that not participating in a sport allows is a lot more time for holding down a paying job. I think paid employment shows time management skills, discipline, and a good work ethic in the same way doing a sport does, probably even more so. At least with my kids, volunteer work doesn’t fall into the same category. With volunteering, they can more often than not dictate the days and times they’re available and can opt out when there’s just too much other stuff going on - and that’s not easily done with paid employment or a competitive sport.</p>
<p>I don’t think a competitive sport is more valuable than another EC–what’s valuable about ECs are the lessons a kid learns when he/she dedicates himself to mastering something–music, art, theater, robotics . . whatever. Most things in life that people want to accomplish usually require discipline, hard work, and perseverance. The logistics can be tough when you’ve got more than one child and more than one activity. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think you are correct in terms of the essay and activities. On the other hand, are you sure that the misplaced superiority really echoes from the chambers of superior and dedicated athletes? Although I cannot speak for everyone --none of us can-- I have been blessed to be around plenty of academic stars as well as athletic superstars. Not the type that are good varsity players, but athletes who compete at the international level!</p>
<p>The misplaced superiority might be more a sideline affair than a locker ot classroom one! Granted, the talk of scholarships and awards can be nauseating on those sidelines, but they are hardly consuming your high level performer. Most participate because they like the activity, and, it should be said, enjoy the talent they were blessed with the luck of the gene pools. </p>
<p>The misplaced superiority is not the domain of athletes. Ever considered how many students who happened to be great athletes are derided as dumb jock? Ever considered how often the story of an athlete doing well in terms of admissions at our favoriite HYPS comes with the “asterisk” … he got in because of sports! From superiority to outright derision? What if the student who might be MVP in several high school team and a national team player in one sport also happens to have the highest SAT in school and easily graduates as Valedictorian? Is he or she entitled to be proud of the accomplishments? The parents? Trust me, that next to the often publicized stories of illiterate football or basketball players, there are plenty of students who happen to be very good on the field and in the classroom, and both thanks to talent, predisposition, but mostly extremely high work. </p>
<p>Like it or not, the adcoms are trained to recognize and measure the accomplishments correctly. While there are hundreds of thousands participants in yout typical school activities, the numbers of truly talented students dwindle as soon as you remove from the local scene. We have seen numbers of 30,000 Vals in the country, with probably 2.3 from mediocre schools. We have the 10,000 AIME qualifiers. Just as adcoms might recognize academic excellence, they do recognize athletic excellence at the highest levels. </p>
<p>As far as the schlepping around, one ought to feel sorry for those kids and their parents, if they have jumped on the bandwagon in other to “fabricate” a competitor. Feelin’ sorry because it is mostly a futile pursuit if the kid does not enjoy the journey. And this because the prize at the end of the road will rarely be worth of the effort! </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I can understand why adcoms would see writing a great essay about a commonplace event as a big plus for the applicant. I also would never assume that the kid who wrote the great essay didn’t otherwise deserve to be admitted to X, Y, or Z college. </p>
<p>That being said–folks who have no interest in sports and/or see no value in sports participation seem to have no qualms about making the assumption that a kid got into a competitive university simply because he/she was a jock. They don’t seem to believe that the kid had other pluses (like a high GPA and/or test scores) that supported a positive decision on admission.</p>
<p>I think the competitive admissions process for elite LACs/universities is tough on both kids and parents. I applaud every kid that gets through it successfully. </p>
<p>It is only fair to point out that there can be an ugly side to organized sports as well. And I say this as a parent whose children have been involved with athletics at a relatively high level for over 10 years. There are parents who overstep their bounds, coaches who are too demanding or even demeaning to the players and kids who are playing to please their parents. Jealousy can arise among the parents when you have a few superstars on a team. It is not ALL fun and games. While most of this is dwarfed by the endless positive experiences, professional coaches and great parents, these things do happen. </p>
<p>But I understand it is the same with the children who are involved with dance, theatre or music. Competition can bring the best and worst out in people. </p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>Well, when you have a hired-for-murder plot that involves pom-poms in middle school, you know that the “worst out in people” is an understatement in Texas! </p>
<p><a href=“Daughter of 'Pom-Pom Mom' Breaks Silence Over Texas Cheerleading Murder Plot - ABC News”>http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/02/daughter-of-pop-pom-mom-breaks-silence-over-texas-cheerleading-murder-plot/</a></p>
<p>Ha ha, sorry for the error. I meant 40-60 miles weekly, not daily.</p>
<p>Yes, I’d say the derision toward athletes at least equals, and in our experience greatly surpasses, any derision for non-athletes. People have a really difficult time accepting that a student can simultaneously be both a top athlete AND a strong student/good at music/art/theater/robotics, etc. Why is that? Well, there is the cultural stereotype of the dumb jock, which probably originated from boxing, where the brain is traumatized, or from money sports like football where there have indeed been plenty of cases of college student-athletes who had nothing of the student to them. Now the stereotype seems to be universally applied.</p>
<p>Secondly, on a high school level athletics (at our school at least) definitely take more time than the vast majority of other activities. it’s really, really hard to take labor-intensive AP and honors classes when you’re an athlete. Thus, there is some truth to the fact that while many athletes may be good students, there are few truly top students who are also top athletes. I read an article about Stanford which stated that of the top 100 athletes in a given sport in a given recruiting class, only about 10 will be strong enough students to be admitted. Also, practicing your sport does not enhance academics in any direct way. In contrast, activities like math team, robotics, history club, newspaper or literary magazine, can contribute to one’s academic preparation and lead to excellent teacher references. Coach references mean squat. . </p>
<p>^^^
I have also been told that college coaches rarely involve the HS coaches in the whole recruiting process as well. Some do not even bother calling the HS coach.</p>
<p>@Xiggi - that is an awful story. Unbelievably sad.</p>
<p>That was such an awful crime!</p>
<p>Athletic success is often both more publicized than academic success, so the opportunity for jealousy and bad behavior is ample. The star athlete can receive a lot of ongoing attention for several months, and when parents and kids covet that for themselves, things can get really nasty. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Setting aside how you know this is the reason your D was admitted, I hope you realize that being an athlete does not preclude an applicant from writing a touching essay about a simple subject that wows adcoms. Those types of essays are not the sole domain of non-athletes.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In hindsight, this is probably my biggest concern about time-instensive high school athletics. The kids spend so much time with this one authority figure, when they are probably in one of the most emotionally vulnerable periods of their lives, that I worry about the lasting effects a bad coach can have on a kid’s psyche. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I believe this depends on the particular sport and how selective the sport is in that high school. In our neck of the woods, that would have been true for HS soccer. On the other hand, the swimming and football coaches would have been the person to contact. As an example, one very successful local coach in Women Soccer admits he only values one HS coach for insights into the local scene and never attends any HS games in his city. He does travel to the large national soccer tournaments for all of his recruiting that does not include the occasional national team players. </p>
<p>In so many words, the HS scene is 100 percent irrelevant … in that sport in the region. Interestingly enough, the local press has yet to buy a clue. Since football is the game in town, the (so-called) journalists tend to cover the other sports via the Friday nights routine and cover the high school results, but usually ignore the select leagues … where the real action takes place. Old habits do not die quickly! </p>
<p>Ah, the problem of abusive coaches…Encroachment into the child’s emotional life is a problem far more important than time encroachment. It’s hard to know when it it’s bad enough to pull the kid off the team, and when it’s bad but should serve as an opportunity for the child to learn to be tough-skinned, self-reliant and internally motivated.</p>
<p>
–</p>
<p>A legitimate concern–coaches can be abusive and you need to really be alert to it as a parent. That being said–I had an abusive, screaming boss who was as bad as any coach I’ve seen in my D’s sport. Both are difficult situations to be in and it’s really hard for a kid to handle.</p>
<p>
While I understand your frustration, I think it’s pretty hard to deny that at the most selective colleges, the only hook that will allow the admission of a person who is really markedly weaker academically than the average student is athletics. Indeed, at the Ivies, there is a formula to ensure that this doesn’t go too far. So, I have to say that at my selective college while there were many very smart athletes, the academically weakest person you would encounter in your classes was invariably a recruited athlete–by a wide margin, in fact. That certainly contributes to the stereotype.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It is also a perceptions shared among quite a few elite college Profs at institutions with Division I programs. This was certainly the case with some Profs I’ve had/known who taught at elite Us for 20+ years and have seen far too many Div I athletes fulfill that stereotype to a T…along with a large helping of arrogant entitlement to go with it and coaches/admins abetting them to ensure they maintain eligibility to play. </p>
<p>To be fair, some of these Profs, if they had it their way, would eliminate special consideration for athletics altogether because they feel the entire process is their U’s pandering to the sports mania within the larger US popular/academic culture. While I am inclined to be sympathetic on the part of US culture being too taken in by sports mania, I don’t necessarily agree with the wholesale elimination of special consideration for athletes*. </p>
<ul>
<li>Hey, the true Nerds and those of us who sympathize with them do need a worthy antagonist group to keep campus life interesting…as well as a good rich source of free food from which to plunder…err I mean partake. :D</li>
</ul>