My son is in 9th grade. He made AIME this year and has As so far. He is on varsity swimming and is already CIF 10th position in a stroke, most likely will be CIF top 8 next year. He is not going to swim in the college but totally loves it. He devotes 3 hours everyday mon-sat, plus 2 1 hour morning practice plus meets over a weekend once a month. Also they have intense training planned over the summer. I am very concerned and I want him to quit. But he is adamant that he won’t because it is the place he goes to relax. His point of view is that the swim team is like another family and he feels rejuvenated after every practice - it combines high level exercise and socialization, things he values a lot. He doesn’t seem to tire of it. He says it gives him the freshness after school to come back and study. He plans to do 7 Courses in 10th (English 10 honors, Chemistry, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus AB, BC, AP World History, AP Computer Science Principles), He has already self studied AB/BC . Ultimately, the aim is to do Computer Science in UC. Do they value academic extracurricular over sports? Will varsity sport be looked down upon compared to a computer science related extracurricular?
Any EC that shows passion be it academic or sports-related is fine. UC’s like most schools want to see continued commitment to an EC.
My kids all did varsity sports. It was a release for them from their AP courses but also it helped them balance their crazy schedules. They were part of a team and they loved it and developed long-term friendships.
UCs are really GPA focused so, be careful with any activity that might undermine his academic performance. Since he loves swimming so much - he should stick with it. I would recommend he cut down on the AP courses - 7 and his swim schedule are going to be really tough to manage while maintaining a high GPA. For UCs, straight As in in somewhat rigorous courses beats As, Bs and Cs with a brutal schedule.
The course load cannot be reduced because we are in a very competitive school.