Senior year: many extra-curriculur passions (plus -potentially-varsity sport) vs. academic workload?

Applying to College
1

Hi all :),

I am going to be a Senior next year and currently, my schedule is this:

Honors Jazz Band
Honors Mod Genocide (half year)
AP Stats
AP Bio
AP Spanish
Honors English (world lit)
Study hall sem 1, Gym sem 2

However, I am involved in several other extra curriculurs which I am passionate about, including rigorous dancing (for which I will have to prepare for auditions, productions, etc.), co-leading my high school’s Yearbook, and playing guitar (especially as a solo-ist in Jazz Band). I also have done theater/may have more oppurtunities/unexpected events.

My question is this: I recently discovered I really enjoy playing volleyball, and as a beginner, if I were to try out for varsity I would have to work hard every single day for try-outs. And if by some miracle I were to make it, I would feel as though with my current workload/commitments it would be near impossible to thoroughly do good on all my subjects.

I know I am a hardworking and good student, and I know very well that it is important to live life rather than simply work my ass off to the point of zombiness around a sometimes very flawed system (as I did in Junior year). Looking at it from that perspective, if I were to get into varsity, I would want to drop a course (like maybe AP Bio) and pursue it. It doesn’t look bad to play varsity from college’s perspective I’m guessing as well.

But I don’t want to look back later in life and feel I didn’t get into a better college because I didn’t take that one course or anything. A little background on my prior high school career- I wasn’t able to take AP’s in Junior year because I moved in to a new school/got summer work way too late for them to accept me trying to do it. However, I took all honors courses (except for an art course and my 2nd sem math) and got a 4.05 for my GPA.

My actual question is this: If I get accepted into varsity volleyball, how terrible would it be for me to drop a course like AP Bio in order to pursue it given my current schedule? As far as getting into a good college (like Amherst, UMass Honors Amherst, or even Yale), would doing a varsity sport along with my other passions/courses make up for a lack of a science course and only 2 AP’s? Or would it severely detract from my resume?
I would likely commit to taking a rigorous out of school bio course 2nd semester and over next summer, if I were to drop AP Bio, if that makes any difference.

Thank you in advanced and sorry for the extremely long post!

2

For college, esp. top tier colleges, academics is the most important thing. Period.

I think Yale would be unlikely because of your lack of academic rigor (only taking 2 AP courses).

3

No doubt that academics are much more important than ECs. Course rigor is important (and your is already a bit light for schools like Yale and Amherst). Doing one year of varsity volleyball will do nothing to improve your chances (unless you magically become a recruited athlete) since you already have solid ECs but doing well in AP Bio might help.

4

Okay, thanks for your insight.

5

@happy1 thanks! Would taking an outside course in Bio later on make a difference?

6

My impression is that sports is not that important unless you’re good enough to be recruited. Otherwise it’s treated like any other EC. I would suggest continuing with what you had originally planned, since you don’t want to drop any academics or extracurriculars for which you’ve already shown a lot more long-term commitment, in favour of a completely new activity you’ve only picked up senior year. Just my opinion but hope this helps x

7

@sansculottes, thank you for your response! Yeah I think this is good advice in regards to getting into the best college possible for me. I want volleyball not for how good it looks on a resume, but I guess I can do club later on (not that I’d get into varsity anyway). In any case I’ll probably try to keep my 3 AP schedule.

8

Ahh I guess it’s difficult choosing between what you want to do vs what will help you get into college. But playing club sounds like a good balance :slight_smile:

9

Also as far as acedemic rigor goes, I had an unusual situation junior year in which AP courses were not an option, but have achievements in other academic areas (which I don’t want to reveal much about). I hope I can highlight this in the applications.