Would a top-tier college like Harvard prefer an AIME Qualifier, top 50 in quizbowl national tournament w/ varsity soccer and great grades student, or a student with varsity soccer and great grades who qualified for USAJMO but didn’t do quizbowl?
Quizbowl is irrelevant compared to GPA, standardized test scores and hard core academic ECs.
If you were Captain, it might count towards whatever leadership roles the schools like to see, or not.
Sports matter if you’re recruited, otherwise probably on par with quizbowl.
Answer based on experience at Hunter College HS which has been one of the top HS quizbowl teams in the country over the last decade.
This is a rather odd question… are you trying to compare chances between two students (maybe yourself and a friend)?
If so, there is going to be a lot more considered than what you included.
Not trying to compare, just wondering where I should go with the ECs because i’m equally good at both. Also, what makes a varsity sport irrelevant just because you’re not recruited? Finally, didn’t a couple of kids from Hunter who were great at quizbowl go to the Ivys? Thanks!
Yes, more than a few did, but they also had higher GPA, higher standardized test scores, more impressive outside ECs, etc. than the just-as-good or better at quizbowl team members who did not end up admitted to quite as selective schools.
Probably the best thing quizbowl did was saving families pre-application visits to Yale, Harvard, Princeton, etc., since the kids had already been there many times for quizbowl.
Top schools don’t recruit quizbowl players. They do recruit athletes, but just being an athlete who is not recruited is worth about as much in terms of improving admissions likelihood as being a top quizbowler: Not that much as compared to academics, standardized testing and core academic ECs.
The likelihood of admission to Harvard and the like is very small. Do the activities that you truly enjoy the most, not what you think will be the boost to get you into college.
I’d say going for the math rather than the quiz bowl would be seen as a more significant accomplishment, but it depends on the school. I’ve heard Harvard doesn’t really care much for AIME/USAJMO, but other top schools(especially MIT) do so a lot.