<p>It seems like CC seems to demean Varsity sports as EC's in general... is it just me who feels that way? Sports take up so much time compared to clubs and other random things...they kill your GPA as well!! 3 Hour practices everyday after school for 6/9 months of the school year is a lot of time! Plus with early outs you miss classes and your grades go down! My main question is, are sports looked upon as extremly solid EC's on applications? I've got a couple clubs and things, such as CSF but I've spent most of my time in highschool on the field...Who else plays sports, and which ones? Which one is your fav?</p>
<p>Unless you are an exceptional athlete (e.g., you’re ranked nationwide, you know the ivy-league coaches who are interested in your talent), I’m not sure how important sports are in comparison to other extracurriculars (community outreach, debate, math team, research, etc.) </p>
<p>Let’s put it this way. You might be the Varsity football captain at your local high school. What about the varsity football captain at your neighboring schools? Does being a varsity athlete really make you that different?</p>
<p>Applying to elite colleges is all about standing out.</p>
<p>What? I’ve never seen anyone demean sports on here before. I’m pretty sure they’re the most solid EC’s you could put on an application, right up there with Band (if it’s legitimate). </p>
<p>Being on V Track stops me from joining more clubs, since the time after school must be devoted to my team. The only club I do after school is Math League, and that’s because I only have to show up during contests. Every other club I’m in meets during the school day.</p>
<p>^^ Yes true, however at Ivy Leauge schools they will recruit you to play sports because your a nationally ranked player and want to continue to play competitive sports. When it comes to being recruited, grades dont really even matter… I am a team captain, however not nationally ranked nor am I intrested in playing in college. Its what I spent a lot of my time on in highschool yet it hurt my GPA and got me nowhere? Thats BS.</p>
<p>I don’t think admissions officers would discount a 12hr/wk EC. I would hope that they wouldn’t count it below a 5hr/wk EC, either.</p>
<p>i think doing a varsity sport can help round out your application. it shows you’re not a one-dimensional bookwork. with that said, if you’re sinking all of your time in to your sport but aren’t recruitable, and meanwhile a classmate is spending the same amount of time to become a national champion debater, then he’ll have a leg up on you in admissions.</p>
<p>I think it’s a problem of variation between the schools. For example, in my town there are two high schools - one with about 2400 kids, and a Catholic one with 240 or so. I know somebody who went to the private one and was not even athletic. But because the classes were so small she was a 3-sport varsity athlete. She even played number 1 on the tennis team and had never picked up a racket before the season!! Meanwhile, at the public school, she couldn’t have been jv on any team, and being a tri-athlete is unheard of.</p>
<p>So my point is that I hope colleges would realize the effort it takes in different cases. At the public school, being varsity is a significant accomplishment and I’m guessing that’s what the OP is referring to, and I would hope colleges give credit because it’s a huge commitment. On the other hand, the girl from the private school was only application-padding and had no passion for the sports whatsoever. It was just like joining extra clubs for resumes.</p>
<p>^Agreed. If you’re an athlete at a large public high school (large private would probably be better, especially in recruitable junk), that’s a much more significant EC than the typical athlete at a small school. I really hope colleges recognize this. And really, at the large public places, especially ones that have good teams, the offseason is generally pretty rigorous sports wise. Like all the golfers at my former HS practice 4+ hours a day the entire summer. The best are at about 7 hours a day. Because they want to make the team and play come fall. Other sports are similar. I also hope colleges recognize and factor in the summer and offseason sacrifices that athletes (even unrecruited ones) need to make. Like I could never do summer school or research while still maintaining a decent golf career. It was never a question for me. </p>
<p>So I hope all colleges recognize this stuff. And I’m confident many adcoms do. But there are definitely more “cultured” people (of which most adcoms, especially at top schools, could generally be described as) who demean sports. Or if not demean them, just not value them much at all. One of my parents does not recognize being a pro athlete as a fulfilling career, to the point of associating all pro athletes with uneducated slobs. Really disturbing. </p>
<p>I’d say yangx is one of these people to a degree. He/she does not think being varsity football captain makes one stand out at top colleges. I beg to differ. How does debate or volunteering make one stand out? Tons of applicants do that. But how many top students (I say top because they’re applying to top schools) do you see captaining the football team? It’s really rare. Yes, you’re not different athletic wise from the captain accross the way. But, I would bet that captain also doesn’t take multiple AP classes and get good grades in them. Tennis captain will not make you stand out as much, though. Mainly just football, baseball, and basketball. </p>
<p>Just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>Sports are great EC’s. They require a ton of discipline to do well (at schools with good sports teams anyway) and again, they show that you exercise your body as much as you exercise your mind. </p>
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<p>It’s fine. Sports at a Division XX school don’t carry much weight.</p>
<p>I agree with you, OP. I think that varsity athletes don’t get as much of a boost in college admissions (although I can’t really say) and on this forum as they should. Even without being a captain! If you’re an “average” member of a varsity sport, that is a HUGE time commitment… You have practice or a game for 3 months out of the school year, every day of the school week, for about 3 hours a day. That means you don’t get home until after 6 o’clock, and you don’t have time for a lot of other after-school activities. That’s ~15 hours a week, and IMO, a lot more significant than someone who is president of 2 clubs (depending on what clubs, of course), which would likely have more “weight” than a “regular” member of a varsity team… And this coming from someone who didn’t play sports in HS! </p>
<p>The thing is, the duties of a club president can vary a LOT. Some contribute little-to-nothing, while others invest a huge amount of time. For example, the president of a school’s debate team might practice every day and be truly talented and dominate at debate competitions. Then compare that to the president of the Italian club. They probably meet once a week, for a half hour or an hour, and spend an hour or two beforehand planning an activity for that week. I can only hope that “member of varsity tennis team” will have more weight than “president of Italian club.” The former shows a talent and is a much bigger time commitment; while the later can show a penchant for a language, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re truly gifted at the language, and time-wise, it is a much smaller commitment.</p>
<p>I just feel like if someone lists that they’re a member of, say, the varsity tennis and football teams (without being captain, all-county, etc.), it gets looked over as an insignificant EC… But in my mind, being a varsity athlete – especially when it’s for more than 1 sport – is a huge accomplishment.</p>
<p>stop whining. i play sports because they are fun to play even thhough i know I won’t get recruited.</p>
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<p>He’s not saying being recruited is his goal… I think he’d just like the amount of time invested in athletics to be recognized, and I agree that it is often overlooked or dismissed on these forums.</p>
<p>I see the point you guys are trying to make about sports being time consuming, and the comparison to “President of the Italian club” makes a lot of sense. But even then, I think the point of putting EC’s on your application is to show that you have a talent. Just being on a sports team doesn’t necessarily mean you’re good, even if its at a big school. I go to a school of 400 that only has 1 team, so most of our athletes play for other, bigger schools, so I happen to know that playing JV or even V isn’t necessarily a big accomplishment in a lot of Houston schools.</p>
<p>That was a somewhat round and about way to get to the point…: The bottom line is, you need to be accomplished at whatever you do, and it needs to be evident. Get sports awards that aren’t obscure, and that compare you to many other kids in your district, state, etc, so they know you are better than other applicants. The same should apply if you’re on the chess team, regardless of how much time you have to put in; the level of talent is what counts. </p>
<p>That said, I totally agree with the comment about Italian club. There is absolutely no way to measure how good they are at Italian, as there are no achievements attached to the club… It just shows they found a group of kids who are “probably” doing something pertaining to the Italian language for some amount of time per week… A good EC is one that Acceptance Committees can use to measure a student’s skills, not the amount of time they can devote to doing something.</p>
<p>But doesn’t it also depend on how much time you spend doing it? I have my own horse and spend AT LEAST 25 hours a week at the barn.
I would hate not getting any credit for that on my college apps.</p>
<p>It depends on what you’re doing with that time.</p>
<p>On one hand, you could be practicing dressage/jumping/whatnot in preparation for shows on the weekend, but you could also spend that 25 hr/week doing little more than polishing your saddle and cleaning stalls. The former demonstrates that you have a passion about something, the latter just exemplifies your skill in manual labor.</p>
<p>I used to play badminton 12 hours a week. And then swim like 10. Tell it to me. :/</p>
<p>Last year, freshman field hockey prevented me from joining clubs. Games 3 times a week after school until 7pm unless it’s a home game, then we get out at 6. Practices the other 2 days until 5pm.</p>
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<p>unless you’re doing something special with that horse like racing with it, then no you will not get credit for just having a horse.</p>
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<p>that has nothing to do with the topic at hand.</p>