Varsity Sport vs Academic ECs

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

Hello all, I am in the class of 2018 for high school with a dream of attending Harvard. I ask for all your guidance and wisdom. My main question is this: I’ve been playing basketball basically my whole life and throughout high school. However, I feel it is getting in the way of other academic activities I wish to do. I also run track. I was thinking of quitting basketball my junior year to open up more space for clubs I always wanted to do. I got elected to a couple officer positions for clubs and I wish to do more. However If I continue basketball, I would not have time to do the clubs. I recently lettered in basketball my sophomore year.

The thing is, I got admitted to the City Council of Cleveland, VP of African American Culture Club, VP of Youth For Christ, and I have the potential to be President of Diversity Acceptance Program. I feel I would not be able to commit to any of these if I played basketball, which is a year round sport basically. As of now, basketball is my life. I enjoy playing it, but I don’t like it being my whole high school career. Since my main goal is Harvard or a school of that caliber, I must excel academically and do amazing things inside and outside of school. Outside school, my ECs are great: Research at Case western reserve, volunteering at hospital, student committee at a non-profit, Finance Intern for a tech company. Pretty cool stuff. However, my inside school activities are pretty weak: no leadership as of now but I have the chance to do leadership. What are your thoughts?
Thank you so much

2

At the risk of sounding trite: do what you love and the rest will follow! If that’s basketball, do it! Here’s a great article to read about extracurricular activities in college admissions: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-hansen-shaevitz/extra-curricular-activities-college-admission_b_3040217.html.

In terms of leadership, I wrote this several years ago and stand by every word

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Are you good enough to be recruited for Division I basketball at Harvard? Were you hoping to play at the college level/ If not, leaving HS basketball for other ECs will not affect your application at all.

You seem to be enthused about your new pursuits–so follow those and see how opportunities develops. Best of luck.

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Thanks for the feedback everyone I probaly will leave basketball. Don’t colleges like commitment to one activity though? Rather than some commitment in many other activites? Because I would be doing basketball for 4 years. But the other activites my junior and senior year, which is only 2.

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@fauve I mean I really don’t know. I made varsity sophomore year and my team won Division 1 Districts. It would be nice to play for a school like Harvard but I’m not going to bet on it. Would colleges look down upon quitting?

@gibby Thanks for the article! Still really indecisive of what I should do sadly lol.

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To be recruited by Harvard, you would need national ranking at this point, i.e., exposure at national level camps and discussions already with coaches. If you are not there, it won’t make a bit of difference if you leave Bball for other ECs. Follow your passions.

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@fauve Alright I’m not recruited on the national level or at all really lol. I’ll take your advice thanks.

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Here’s a little secret; stop thinking about Harvard. Stop thinking about how it will all look on your application. Instead focus on what Y-O-U want to do! Here’s another good article to read: http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways.

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Note that athletic recruiting at the ivies focus on academics first.

If your basketball skills are good enough you might want to contact the Harvard coach. Look at the website to see the profile of current players.

Coaches always love to find a diamond in the rough. Ivy League coaches are not allowed to proactively contact you until July of your senior year. But you can contact the coach on your own.