<p>I was just wondering if doing sports was necessary? I'm mainly in clubs right now, but will doing sports improve my chances of getting into any Ivy league?</p>
<p>The best option is do an EC that you love and that you’re dedicated to…colleges aren’t looking for the student with 100 ECs, but a student with 5-10 stellar ECs with leadership qualities and has done something significant with their time instead of juggling random ECs they’re remotely interested in, just to get into college.</p>
<p>I couldn’t do sports because I just have too many health problems, and here I am. Nor did I have to specifically say “the only reason I didn’t do sports is because I can’t safely do so.” They looked at the rest of my sport-free app, and lo! they saw that it was good. (I assume, since I got into 4/4 schools to which I applied.) Obviously sports are nice, but not required of every applicant.</p>
<p>Highly selective colleges and universities look for students who have had extensive involvement in extracurricular activities where they have shown growth or leadership or both.</p>
<p>Sports are one kind of extracurricular, but they’re not the only kind. If your thing is ballet or debate or the oboe or the robotics club or doing the lighting design for the school musical, that’s OK too.</p>
<p>If you just begin a sport in the middle of HS and aren’t super talented in it, it’s not going to make much of a difference now.</p>
<p>The typical elite college admitee is already excellent in a variety of ways – without having to go out and poll strangers on a college advice forum. You’re behind the pack unless you already have excellent offerings that a top college would desire. As stated, this does not have to include any sports.</p>