<p>Im just wondering how important sports are to a college. Thanks!</p>
<p>Not very, unless you’re good enough to play intercollegiate sports.</p>
<p>There are over 4000 colleges in the U.S., of which about 2500 are universities or 4-year colleges. The overwhelming majority of them are not very selective. If you meet their academic criteria, you’re going to get in.</p>
<p>A small number of the 2500 are selective. These are the only colleges and universities that care about extracurricular activities at all. They get more academically qualified applicants than they have room for, and they have to choose an entering class from among those qualified applicants. Part of the basis for those choices is often not academic; it’s what the applicants do other than going to classes, studying and taking tests.</p>
<p>These colleges tend to want a class with all different kinds of people: jocks, vocalists, political junkies, poets, theatrical technicians, etc. So they like people who have demonstrated some skill and interest in athletics, the arts, debate, etc. But unless you’re good enough to play intercollegiate sports, it doesn’t matter much whether your thing is the basketball team or the debate team or the madrigals. Well, it may matter in a particular instance–if, for example, College X is looking for musicians and you’re a tennis player–but you can’t say across the board that sports matter more than music, or vice versa.</p>