<p>I am currently a jr starting to feel anxious about not having enough extra-curriculars- clubs-etc. on my apps. I'm a club swimmer putting in 20 hrs/wk at the pool so there isn't much time left after hw. I'm real close to jr nat'l cuts in some distance events and hope to swim in college. My list includes Stanford, MIT, Cal and a few less competitive schools. My course load is the most challenging offered (I will have taken 14 AP's by graduation). GPA 4.33, scored 5's in AP tests last spring, SAT score 2250 (will re-take in Jun). Need I do more???</p>
<p>Personally, I believe that athlete applicants should bring more than strong athletics and academics to the table. I’ve encouraged my kids to be involved with independent community service, tutoring, music, school clubs, etc.</p>
<p>That being said, a friend told me a few years ago that a coach at an elite (HYP) school told his athlete D to drop all of her other activities and focus all her efforts on her sport and her schoolwork. She followed the advice, and it worked out as planned. She was admitted to and just graduated from said elite college.</p>
<p>Maybe things are different now. Maybe hers was a special case. I don’t know.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>CA, what have you done over the summers? Sounds like your scores and grades are going to be fine and if you get the cuts then the coaches will be interested. You say, need I do more, but have you done ANY ECs? Are you involved in anything at school? </p>
<p>The summers after 9th and 10th grades my daughter picked up a lot of hours at special ed school programs, hospitals, and other one-day volunteer events. She was in a couple of clubs that met after school for only an hour or so, and some that met during school. The only reason she didn’t volunteer again last summer was because she was finally old enough to work (she has a late summer birthday so missed a year) and she did work full time. </p>
<p>I don’t actually know if this made a difference, to tell the truth, since when they did the preread, they only asked for scores and grades. Sometimes on the questionnaire they might ask what else you have done, but quite likely if you’re the one they want, it won’t matter. But it can’t hurt! I would say you do what you can and be your own person. I don’t think you will get into MIT on fast times alone - the D1 schools might be a different story. These are just my thoughts, please don’t get the idea I even know what I’m talking about !!</p>
<p>I just read wilberry’s post, so I’ll add a bit to what I said in post #2.</p>
<p>My S had a fairly impressive resume outside of athletics and academics, including a national award for an independent community service project, head science tutor at his HS, NHS President, but none of that ever came up in inteviews with coaches. They already knew his athletic qualifications, and once they learned about his test scores and grades they asked no more.</p>
<p>The lesson from this is, I think, that these coaches know there is an academic bar their applicants must clear, and once they are over that, nothing else really matters.</p>
<p>Take this all with a grain of salt. I really don’t know the answer to your question. I’m just typing away. As wilberry put it, so well: </p>
<p>“These are just my thoughts, please don’t get the idea I even know what I’m talking about !!”</p>
<p>What about something swimming related? Has she participated in anything like that and you didn’t look at it as community service?
I have a HS friend who is really involved in the special olympics with swimming events.</p>
<p>My D2 had an equally time intensive ec that she did over the summer and 1-2 weekends per month. I truly think that made her more enticing to admissions. While the coach was most interested in her athletic achievements, the admissions staff wanted her because she brought more than her sport to campus. She was not a hard sell to admissions not only because of her academic accomplishments but also because she had an extensive ec resume (concentrated in one area).</p>
<p>Incidentally, looks like this came up last year as well: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/809593-how-much-do-non-athletic-ecs-matter-recruited-athlete.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/809593-how-much-do-non-athletic-ecs-matter-recruited-athlete.html</a></p>
<p>My take would be that if you’re going to a top D1 program and you’re a top D1 level swimmer, it probably won’t matter all that much, especially with those test scores and grades and courses. However, if you want to go to a school like MIT they will probably look more at the whole person. That doesn’t mean you won’t get in, it just means you will have to be a good whole person.</p>
<p>And, on the other hand, if you are not that top level D1 swimmer but one who could potentially be on that team and keep up, in that case you might need to look a little better to the admissions people.</p>
<p>In other words: good luck !! I am sure you will find the right fit no matter what you do with your “spare” time.</p>
<p>I agre with Wilberry - if you’re confident that you will be a recruited athlete at a DI school, then I don’t think your other EC’s really matter, except to you in that you enjoy them and learn from them. Our S had a number of other EC’s and no one ever asked about them once they knew he passed the bar academically and athletically. However, if you’re not sure that being a recruit for a D1 school will work out, then it would be a good idea to pursue some other EC’s as well - in case you’re not recruited at all, or are recruited at a DIII school where they can offer a tip, but not a confirmed roster spot. Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Something to consider is whether you will be looking at merit sholarships in conjunction with athletic scholarships/coaches’ endorsements. DD received her school’s top merit scholarship along with partial athletic scholarship (total covers all OOS tuition and fees plus part of room and board). Her EC’s in regional pre-professional music program, honors society chairs, full time work experiene, volunteer coaching, scores/GPA, strong essay, sucessful interviews etc. were all definitely important components for being awarded merit $.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for your thoughts. I did play in the orchestra for 2 yrs, so I have that too. Plus I have volunteered with my church at a homeless shelter and will continue to earn hrs there this summer.</p>
<p>It really does depend on the sport, though. My daughter was an elite gymnast and trained 36 hours/week year-round. That left precious little time for anything else, although she did manage to squeeze in community service with her church youth group.</p>
<p>CA swimmer,
have you looked at what it takes in terms of athletic performance to be recruited at the schools you’re looking at? (I’d assume that Stanford is quite a bit different from MIT). Based on our experience, if you train/compete year-round, colleges realize that you can’t have any time-consuming other ECs. What do you do in the summer?</p>
<p>Can I just say this:</p>
<p>All Ivy League schools, as well as all top competitive schools (MIT, Stanford, etc) want kids who do everything, and do it with a smile and grace. </p>
<p>This may sound impossible, but I guarantee you that whatever EC you are doing on top of the 20 someodd hours per week you spend on your sport, there is another kid who is doing more. </p>
<p>So, to quickly answer the OPs question, YES ECs matter, even with a recruited athlete (or just elite athlete) practice schedule. A friend of mine is literally a National Champion in Track and Field with amazing marks, but could not get into the uber competitive schools since she did not have the ECs that some of my other athlete friends have (ie 500+ hours of community service, experience running committees instead of just being on them, etc)</p>
<p>They ALWAYS matter, because being a great student is the norm, being a great athlete is the norm for recruits, but to get into these schools, you need to set yourself apart from an already set-apart group. The way to do that is through ECs, done and done.</p>
<p>*Note, when I say EC Im referring to anything you do outside of academics and athletics, or outside the normal realm of academics. This includes: outside of school academic competitions, volunteering, leading committees, job experiences, running your own small business, etc. Im not just referring to the typical volunteer-at-an-animal-shelter EC, although that is a great one.</p>
<p>Itr depends on your level of athletics. My kids competed at a national and international level, and while they had some academic awards during junior year (Intel and NHD), they really had not much else in terms of clubs or volunteering (just the bare minimum). No problem whatsoever with recruitment at the most elite schools. In fact, my son wrote an essay about how he had to take his SATs abroad during competition. CA swimmer, do you want to PM me?</p>
<p>CAswim: I think you’re doing enough. Your academics and swimming accomplishments are impressive! 14 AP’s wow! HYPS and MIT will love that. Unlike Cal, they’re not looking for straight A’s, they’re looking for challenging course loads, which you’ve done! At this point I’d just focus on swimming…go faster!</p>
<p>you’re a rock star!</p>
<p>^^your academic stats and your sport will get you in, you don’t need EC’s. It’s all about the coach at Cal, Stanford or MIT wanting you now, and by now you should hopefully be on their radar. swim fast and get recruited is all you have left to do!</p>
<p>^^one more thought, or evidence: My D didn’t mention her EC’s to any of her pre read schools. Nor did she mention any EC’s on her 1 app to the school that recruited her. And none of the schools admissions asked her for any EC’s.</p>
<p>Her pre reads and 1 app showed essentially three things (and the essays of course):</p>
<p>GPA (9 AP’s, very important)
SAT
coach support</p>
<p>if the coach wants you, you already have the other stats to make it in, including at HYPS. however, bumping up your SAT to 2300 would be added insurance. My D’s SAT score was what put her over the top for admissions at several of the elite schools that pre read/approved her.</p>
<p>^^I know nothing about Cal or Stanford so won’t speak to that. However, our experience (and those of others that we followed during the admission process) at MIT does not jive with what pacheight has written. MIT most definitely cares about non-athletic ECs, but mostly as they pertain to math/science fields. Given one has adequate academic stats, they are quite clear that while support of the coaches is helpful, it is far from sufficient to gain admittance. For a white male, the actual acceptance rate is somewhere around 5% so maybe coaches pull raises that up to 30%? :-)</p>
<p>^^that sounds right, scratch MIT form my list, and Caltech as well if you’re considering that. teammate of D’s 2 years ago was recruited and admitted by MIT, and math was very import. And this athlete, and very nice kid, was not a top junior athlete. So MIT was more interested in the math/science than the sport.</p>
<p>hope that helps.</p>
<p>btw: at Cal and UCLA if you are tops in your sport and can fog a mirror you’ll be admitted. Their lack of academic standards turned my D off.</p>
<p>
Based on the way this was written it is clear that your friend was not a RECRUITED athlete. This is obviously a big difference.</p>
<p>I feel like this question is easily uncovered by the athlete him/herself when he/she becomes immersed in the thick of the recruiting process by talking to coaches; the answer becomes a pretty obvious “no,” at least for D1 schools. Every D1 coach I’ve spoken to has given a very clear run-through of how they recruit (checkpoints): they look at the hard academic numbers, they look at how they do, they get their transcript and scores in for a pre-read (to ascertain that the athlete’s school schedule is adequately tough, as well as confirming that the grades and scores are where they need to be), and then the barriers are more or less crossed; the path to NLI/LL/whatever rests then on the final call by both coach and athlete, perhaps made during an official visit. </p>
<p>There is never a moment where the coach and athlete interact as such: “Hey kid just making sure, are your extracurricular activities rich and varied?” “Well to tell ya the truth coach besides my insane Call of Duty abilities I’ve got nothing for ya there.” Of course that’s never about the case anyways, given the type of personality it usually takes to be a D1 athlete, but even if it were, so what? Admissions strives to bring in “well-lopsided” kids in what they do outside (and sometimes inside) academics. If you are an asset to an athletics program and you meet the academic criteria, your tuba-playing abilities are of no consequence.</p>