I’ve been playing a competitive sport at a competitive level and I should be making the varsity team for it twice. This is also not the type of sport people do for apps (e.g. golf, tennis, swimming), and our school is ranked pretty highly within the state for it.
However, the sport also takes up a TON of time. August, September, October, and early November will be gone because there is only enough time for the sport and taking care of my 6 APs. I will also probably get very little playing time my first year, and be decent my senior year (so definitely no scholarships).
I want to get into the best college I can on a STEM (math/cs) major, and for that I need to study for USACO and the like, so my question is: Should I drop the sport, and focus the next two years on furthering those, or continue the sport and give up those months? I also am part of the quizbowl team (nothing too strenuous but definitely a commitment) , will be doing some internship this summer, and need to study for SATs/ACTs and maybe get a head start on some of my classes. Any advice?
Unless you are being recruited for a sport (or you are Olympic caliber) it is just another EC. You have to decide if there is something you’d rather be doing instead.
I wouldn’t “rather be doing” either. I like both equally, so the “breaking the tie” factor is going to be value for apps. I am trying to decide that by asking here.
Assuming that the information that you provide here can be trusted, it is simple.
You have two activities, one in which you have not engaged at all. You have participated in no computer or math-related activities outside the classroom. On the other hand, you are claiming that you have been playing your sport for at least two years, and that you are sure to make varsity.
That does not seem to me that you “like both equally”. It seems that you like one, and want to do the other because you believe that it will help you get accepted to a more prestigious college.
You are asking if you should quit your sport in order to study more (USACO, SATs, quizbowl).
Here is a philosophical question for you – do you view high school years as actual life or as preparation for life (which you probably think, at this time, as starting in college)?
If you think life begins in college, then you should probably quit your sport and dedicate yourself to medaling in USACO.
If you think high school is real life, then you should probably continue with your sports assuming you enjoy it and enjoy the social interactions around it. One exception: if you live, breathe and dream cs/math, then you should quit sport and study for USACO whether you think life begins in college or that you are living it right now.
As someone decades older than you, I can tell you that if you think life begins in college, you will realize, as soon as you step into college, that life actually starts when you land your dream job. Then when you start that dream job, you’ll realize that life actually begins when you land that promotion. And so on.
Lol, a corollary to that is “my job will be so much better/easier with the next promotion”. I kept on thinking that as a junior associate through partnership, and then changed industries to investment banking.
Another good one that one of my law school mentors told me was, “the private practice of law is like a pie eating contest where the prize is a pie”.
As to OP’s question, the point of an EC, excepting recruited athletes or an achievement at a recognized national or international level that in essence makes you a “recruited” scientist, author, artist, musician… , is to give a selective school further indicia of your leadership, perseverance, pro-activity, ability to be part of a team/community, empathy/inclination to service, things that would make a an asset to the school’s community as a whole. So the question to ask is if continuing with the sport would add more to your “story” than trying to pick something else up, assuming you enjoy it as an activity. There is no set answer that works for everyone, although the longer and deeper that you have been involved in something, the greater the risk to give it up and try something else unless you really have lost interest in the activity.