<p>by end of senior yr i would have participated in:
football 2 yrs
basketball 2 yrs
track and field 3 yrs</p>
<p>how much do ivies take varsity sports into consideration?</p>
<p>None, zero, zip - unless you are good enough to be a recruited athlete.</p>
<p>As much as any other EC you're dedicated to.</p>
<p>With a letter of recruitment and you meet the criteria it is a good hook. Without that it doesn't do anything for you.</p>
<p>depends on your sport. Some sports do not require the same amount of time comitment as others.
Case in point: At my school, some sports such as football, rowing (crew), and basketball eat up a lot of a students time ( Varsity football 20+ hrs/wk, varsity rowing 30+ hrs/wk, varsity basketball 20+ hrs/ wk).
However, there are some Varsity sports at our school such as Lax and Track and field that are used by some to cheat the system to get their varsity letters. For example, although our track and field team has a really good core of athletes that put in the time, there are way more students who do throwing events and only show up for track meets, yet because they've 'participated' in a varsity sport, they get their varsity letter ahead of people who have won national championships in rowing because the rowers won the championships in grade 10 as opposed to the varsity grades, grades 11-12. In the case of Lax, there's maybe 15 out of 30 people on the varsity team who show up consistently to practices, the other 15 are 'gameday' participants, yet all of them got their Varsity letters in grade 11, while i had to wait until the end of grade 11 for mine (lol I play football AND row 5 yrs).</p>
<p>Anyways, enough of me ranting. If you have pursued your sport with passion consistently to a deep level (i.e., National Champions, All-American, National Junior Team) and are not in it just for a "letter" then by all means it it can be a strong hook.</p>
<p>As for being a recruited athlete, you don't need to wait for the coach to call you. Instead, talk to your high-school coach about you wanting to participate in your sport at the college level, and see your coach's evaluation of your talent. Then all you have to do is contact the appropriate coaches at the college you want to go to and send in a letter stating who you are and your stats/honors/awards, etc., in that sport. Sometimes they respond, sometimes they do not, but the college coach might forward a list with your name on it to the adcoms.</p>
<p>well, my essay was about how my school's first ever varsity soccer team has taught me about hardwork and perseverence. hope this hook is strong enough.</p>
<p>I'm going to assume that you just mean as an EC and that you don't plan to try as a recruited athlete.</p>
<p>I am rather surprised that people have said that it doesn't count as much as any other EC. Of course it does. Why wouldn't it? I think it might be because of the word "hook". Some people say "hook" to mean a strong EC and other people use it to mean something stronger such as URM, legacy, athlete, development case, or VIP. In that sense, it is not a hook, but it is a good EC.</p>
<p>I know that I saw in one of the insiders books that the college would especially mark an application for Editors of school papers or yearbooks and Captains of teams. If you are a captain/co-captain, that would be a big plus.</p>
<p>I think football is good.</p>
<p>Most really smart kids don't do sports, and of those that do, most do non physical sports like tennis, track, X Country, ect.</p>
<p>Football might impress them.</p>
<p>If you're a star football player on your high school team and are still valedictorian with high test scores, then you are pretty much an auto admit at Harvard. I ahve only met one individual like this in my life though.</p>
<p>I'm sure there is an adcom that thinks like packerfan22. I'm serious that it might help you. Adcoms come from all walks of life and they all have their personal preferences. Playing football could very well make you unique (to some extent). :)</p>
<p>Also, the service academics love this stuff. It is VERY important at West Point, Annapolis, and the others.</p>
<p>America=Obsession w/Sports. Son is three-sport varsity letterman, captain of two teams, and has a floor-to-ceiling stack of letters from college coaches/admissions offices. Plus, calls heated up after football season ended. Demanding EC's (30+ hrs/week for football alone), but showing a pay-off via preferred admissions and $$.</p>
<p>so how important are varsity sports exactly even if its only for one year?</p>
<p>Sports can be a strong hook if you can be recruited as an athlete. In the case of the OP, they are a very good EC that shows long-term committment and "passion". A single year would add to your app, but it isn't a really strong EC. Everything is relative. The public universities are numbers driven and, in general, don't look at EC's. At HYP, a strong EC would involve winning a national award. </p>
<p>People should enjoy their EC's and not worry so much. Remember how Al Bundy was so proud of playing football at Polk High. That is what it is really all about.</p>
<p>i hate the sports system:</p>
<p>one season of cross country running (non-varsity) is WAY WAY WAY more rigorous than almost every other varsity sport at our school (with the exception of skiing and soccer)</p>
<p>Wouldn't the weight of varsity sports depend on the school? Another factor might be whether the applicant scored above 600 on the SATs and had a good GPA of 3.5 or higher (granted this isn't the usual CCer who is in the stratosphere of stats--but these are still very good stats). I seem to recall a NY Times article on recruiting by some east coast LACs. At those elite LAC east coast schools the field narrows considerably if you're an athlete and have the grades for admit decision--that is a huge hook for a school that admits around 10/20%.
Going down a notch to those admitting 25-35% it looks like it is still a consideration. If a school publishes the number of varsity captains entering its freshman class, i think it might be a very good sign as to the weight the admit com might give it. You can also see some of the quirkiness that could attract some adcom decisions positively such as bagpipes, bellydancer, flyers of planes. If you are trying to stand out in a crowded field of 15000 apps, you gotta do something to get noticed. Despite what everyone thinks there just arent that many varsity captains with the grades to get admitted to most of the elite/semi elite schools.
I recall seeing somewhere on CC that the average SAT of Duke BBall players is close to 900 and for Rice is about 1000. If you've read Charlotte Simmons maybe an athlete candidate could be a "swimmy".</p>
<p>Additional thought--maybe Papachicken can plot out the captains of varsity sports in admit statistics. Vanderbilt had 504 admitted varsity captains out of 11,000 plus applicants. I'll start finding some additional data and see what develops.</p>
<p>The weight or advantages of the varsity sport are not so much dependent on the school, but the individual program within the school. As an example, son's football team went undefeated and advanced to the state semi's-final four. Huge exposure...quality of the program and coaching staff is highly respected, recruiters come watch games, come observe practices, and know the product they'd be getting with an athlete groomed by a top-notch, winning program. The senior starters have been receiving unsolicited attention from many schools in all divisions. From son's experience, as well as that of his fellow senior captains, a captainship elevates recruitability to the next level. Generally, those positions are well-earned through athleticism/talent, performance/stats, work ethic/discipline, leadership ability, attitude, respect from peers, sacrifice, etc....so many things. Extra responsibilities and commitment also are required by the position which is known by recruiters and highly desirable. Throw in some solid academic scholarship with that and you have a student-athlete with a potent one-two punch.</p>
<p>musictoad--Pulling up some stats for admitted varsity captains would be very interesting indeed.</p>
<p>A portion of the article from the online edition at <a href="http://www.nytimes.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.nytimes.com</a></p>
<p>December 25, 2005
Admissions and the Cold Slap of Rejection
By BILL PENNINGTON
Kevin Friedenberg was certain he had played by all the rules of the college recruiting game. </p>
<p>A top high school lacrosse goalie from Needham, Mass., he had e-mailed coaches to promote himself and had attended showcase camps and tournaments. An A student who said he had College Board scores equivalent to 1,380 on the two-part SAT, Friedenberg narrowed his choices to three Division III institutions, including Haverford, a small, selective liberal arts college.</p>
<p>thread</p>
<p>Getting recruited as an athlete to the Ivies or Top LACs </p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=140585&highlight=times%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=140585&highlight=times</a>
Friedenberg twice visited the Haverford campus outside Philadelphia, with astute questions for the lacrosse coach, Mike Murphy: Could he study a year abroad? How many advanced placement high school courses did he need to take? Did Haverford need a goalie? Would the coach support him in admissions?</p>
<p>So far Ive found two schools listing their varsity captains</p>
<p>Washington and Lee:
Apply 3949
Admitted 1139
Enrolled 466
Varsity Captain 153</p>
<p>Vanderbilt:
Applications 11,163
Admitted 4092
Enrolled 1607
Varsity Captain 504</p>
<p>Looking for more. I'm not looking for the following:</p>
<p>Rice<br>
Applicants 8106
Admitted 1802
Enrolled 727
Varsity Athlete 375----too generic</p>
<p>here are two more:</p>
<p>Notre Dame
Applied 11,300
Accepted 3600
Enrolled 1985
Varsity Captain 773</p>
<p>Tufts
Applied 14727
Admitted 27.4%
Enrolled 1367
Varsity Captain 298</p>