<p>I participate in a team sport at my school during the fall, winter, and spring. This means that almost every single day I'm after school for 2-3 hours playing a sport.</p>
<p>My parents want me to quit. They say it's interfering with my other ECs. The only other major things I do right now are boy scouts (trying to get Eagle, I'm a junior now), volunteering, chess club, math league, and I'm trying to get a research internship.</p>
<p>He says I should work on doing more academic stuff and just quit playing sports because it "looks better" to colleges if I work harder in scouts and research/volunteering.</p>
<p>This makes me mad. Athletics makes me physically fit, makes me happier, and gives me 2-3 hours a day in which I'm doing something non-academic for fun. The rest of the time I'm inundated with homework as a result of a rigorous schedule.</p>
<p>How do I convince him to let me keep playing sports during all 3 seasons?</p>
<p>I value personal fitness and personal interests over what an admission committee member thinks of me in 15 minutes of reading an app, and I don't understand why my dad insists I'm wrong.</p>
<p>He’s wrong. Your sport is an extracurricular. It’s part of who you are, which is what colleges want to see. And there’s no reason you can’t work harder in scouts and research while playing the sport you love.</p>
<p>If sports are what you like to do, then do them. Your ECs should be what you enjoy, not what your father thinks will look pretty on a college application. Your application will be stronger with ECs you enjoy, because those are the ones that end up looking best (it’s usually rather evident when you actually care about something).</p>
<p>Your father is wrong both to try to determine your ECs for you and in his conviction that his suggestions will improve your chances of admissions.</p>
<p>The value in sports isn’t simply how much you love them- it’s the lessons in teamwork, playing a role, submitting to challenges each time you step out- and, whether or not your team wins, the fact that you set your sights on getting there. I am a huge proponent of volunteering, intellectual competitons and the experience of a research internship. But, greater minds than ours have studied and praised team sports for generations. I guess it could be different if you’re bored, barely make practice and warm the bench. But, think of the hubbub when folks realized (back in my generation) how the limited opportunities in team sports negatively impacted women when they went into business or the professions.</p>
<p>You should do something you love that’s for sure, but at the same time, you should be realistic too. IF devoting 2 to 3 hours on sports everyday affects your grades significantly, then I can understand why your parents worried.</p>
<p>SO if you keep up with your study, you should let your parents know that those sports really make you happy. Since as a parent, my top priority is always of that each of my kids has a balanced happy life.</p>
<p>If you want to continue to play sports, then continue. I also play a sport every season and I manage to also do other things. Additionally, three sports shows dedication to colleges, especially if you played them all four years. If you stop say senior year, they might think you are not dedicated or slacking off. However, if you really don’t like the sport then stop, but this is obviously not the case.</p>
<p>But I also get that you may be over-committed in terms of ECs given the demands of junior year. Junior year is a great time to focus in on the 3-4 things you care most about and make a significant investment in them. If sports is one of them, great. Why not drop the volunteering, or one of the other clubs? If you want to add an EC, why not do it over the summer? A random EC (or two) more or less during the school year isn’t going to make any difference in your college application - it’s what you accomplish within a specific EC that counts.</p>