Sports or no sports?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Hello, I am currently a junior, and I am undecided over whether I should do sports in winter/spring.</p>

<p>I am very academic-centered, taking the heaviest courses possible since freshmen year. Also, I have daily participated in some academic team or club (varsity math team, computer science team, physics olympiad, biology olympiad, little bit of parliamentary debate...). My main non-academic extracurricular activity is playing in the first violin section in school chamber orchestra and a local youth orchestra.</p>

<p>During freshmen year, I played sports all season. In fall, I played in JV water polo. In winter, I made the try-outs for varsity swimming, but I had to move down to JV due to interference with academic teams and orchestra. In spring, I wanted some more free time to prepare for my AP tests and math competitions, so I settled with intramural squash.</p>

<p>Because I wanted to shoot for an officer position in math team or computer science team, I decided not to do any sports in sophomore year. This was a hard decision, since I am pretty good at sports. However, since I am not a star player in any of my sports, I thought I should pour more time into academics.</p>

<p>Now as a junior, I am somewhat regretful. Despite the sacrifice, I did not advance much further than what I accomplished as freshman. For example, I made into USAMO during freshman year but did not qualify (by 1 or 2 points) for MOSP. As a sophomore, the same exact thing happened. Only thing I accomplished as a sophomore is winning a few minor computer science contest (state level).</p>

<p>What strikes me harder is that colleges today really want to see some sport in students (doesn't matter how good they are at it). For example, students who were admitted to Harvard or MIT included in their apps some sports, although they were mediocre at their sports. I am guessing colleges prefer students who are supposedly "fit."</p>

<p>I am currently considering about at least attending track team practices for winter. Although I am quite out of shape right now, I have run some laps every morning to keep myself healthy. Swimming and diving teams need to drive after school to a nearby pool everyday, so I am reluctant to restart swimming. My main priority is still academics.</p>

<p>Although less time-consuming, track team practices could still prevent me from attending some late after school math team lectures and practices. What I considered once was skipping the track practice once a week to stay with math team. This would mean that I probably would not run in several meets. The coaches will also not like such action.</p>

<p>If I resort to skipping practices, I feel that I am not telling the colleges the whole truth when I write in my application that I was "in" the track team.</p>

<p>Would this be morally wrong? Will someone give me some detailed advice for my dilemma? What is most colleges' view on sports? Is not doing sports a huge minus in my application?</p>

<p>Thank you reading...
Aqua3993, class of 2011</p>

2

<p>Interesting post; would like to see some advice as well. I focused on academics during my high school career (junior right now) too, but I’m hoping that doing photography and graphic design on an international level could make up for it.</p>

3

<p>Well, it’s could to try and be balanced. I don’t know how much it will help though.
Skipping practice is fine, don’t worry too much about it. As long as you make the team and aren’t kicked off halfway, missing a practice a week is very reasonable. Many people on teams at my school ditch practices. A word about track and XC though - at my very asian school, everyone with no athletic talent joins them. As a result, just being on the team doesn’t mean much for either of these sports.</p>

4

<p>Be on the track team if you WANT. Don’t feel obligated to to make yourself more rounded. You are either rounded or not, by virtue of where your passions lay. If you aren’t going to be committed to track, then don’t do it just to have a sports activity listed on your app. If you’re not passionate about it, why even list it? What would motivate you other than trying to look a little more competitive? In that sense, you should be who you are and only that.</p>