<p>(I also posted this under HS life but I'm not sure if that was the best place to put this)
so I know that first semester senior year is going to be crazy busy since I'm taking SAT Chem+Math2 + SATI retake + 5 APs + college apps/early decision.
the problem is that i've been on the tennis team (JV) for three years and I wanted to do it ALL of high school cause i love tennis and it's better to finish it out. but now, am i wise in thinking that playing varsity tennis (will probably be on bench most of the time since I've been on JV and the girls in my school are good) won't be worth it senior year?</p>
<p>i feel like i need all the time i can spare the first few months of senior year and tennis is just too time consuming if i'm barely even going to play yet still required to go to all the games. will it hurt me if colleges see that i quit tennis my last year of high school? or is quitting under these circumstances understandable?</p>
<p>thanks so much for anyone that reads/responds to this!</p>
<p>I would imagine that this totally depends on your other EC's....If you consider yourself a "student athlete", then dropping tennis would seem monumental...If you are a "student" who happens to play tennis, but in reality your other activities are of more significance, it really won't matter to colleges....</p>
<p>Now for my opinion though....It may be difficult to accomodate timewise, but you mentioned that you "love tennis".....I do not believe you should ever give up something you absolutely love.....personally, I would give up something that you are not as enamored with....</p>
<p>If your school is like most, your ED app will have to be into guidance very early....get that done immediately....tennis in NJ is usually over by the 1st week in November....then you can work on your other apps.....</p>
<p>Thanks for your input. I guess the issue is that I will not "love tennis" this year if I will barely be PLAYING tennis, since I'll be in the bench. That's why joining tennis doesn't sound very appealing this year.</p>
<p>I guess I have no idea how time consuming apps are, but since I will probably want to spend extra time and effort on my ED app (being that I want to go to the college alot), it still sounds very very stressful.</p>
<p>But no, I just love playing tennis w/out so much pressure (thus JV) and I'm not even close to any kind of athlete. It's just for fun.</p>
<p>Remember: you can love playing a sport without having to be on a team. If you are not the "star" the team is depending on to "win the big championship," I'd say do what makes you happy. If you don't have time to go to practice every day and go to every match, then just pick up a racket and play for fun when you feel like it. Don't just stick it out in order to satisfy some imagined need to do so in order to get into the college of your choice. If being on the team hurts your grades, THAT will hurt your college chances a lot more than simply not being on the team your senior year.</p>
<p>My son played JV all the way through, including senior year, because he loves to play. Have a talk with the coach and explain the situation. I'm betting the coach wants you to continue playilng and will be understanding about missing a couple games/practices for college visits, etc. Because the rest of the team isn't necessarily counting on you, it's would be nice to have that flexibility. Most college applications will ask you for the number of years you participated in each sport.</p>
<p>Slshi- I'm actually in the exact same position right now. Actually for preseason, the coach agreed to let me practice with JV, but we have the rule that seniors aren't allowed on JV. However, my doubles partner and I talked with the coach about what we're going to do... and most likely we'll practice with them, and then act as managers during the matches. We're also talking to the JV coach as to maybe being able to play JV matches, because some schools in our area do that.</p>
<p>I'm thinking that "4 years tennis-Varsity Senior year" vs. "3 years JV tennis" just isn't worth all the extra stress that joining tennis will be putting on me this year. It's just..I don't want to have any regrets later on about not pushing myself hard enough. But considering i have SATs and SAT IIs, I could really use those extra three hours afterschool...</p>
<p>I would say drop tennis. This is my reasoning: Unless you are a star athlete, hw and tests are much more important. Colleges will understand that not everyone is great at sports. It would be much more beneficial to your application to have a 100 points more on your SAT than one more year of tennis (if I remember correctly, legacies have about the equivalent of a 100 points bump, as do early action).</p>
<p>It really depends on the type of person you are. If you like being busy every second of every day, and don't mind getting less than average hours of sleep, stick with tennis. If not, drop it.</p>