<p>Frankly, I'm just not that into sports. Even if I was, I probably wouldn't be able to play due to my back problems.</p>
<p>^^me too,im just not that athelic.</p>
<p>By the way,in fact, I play badminton.but my school DOES NOT offer a team of badminton nor a club.so,is it worth to put it on my college app? do you think the colleges will trust me if i dont play it in a team???</p>
<p>sports only DO help your chances if you were recruited. some schools might also like the leadership aspect if you are a captain of a team. Otherwise, as long as you show that you are involved in your school in other ways, you don’t need a sport. It is much more effective to put your time into something about which you are genuinely passionate, than something you don’t enjoy doing that won’t help you anyway. Don’t worry about not playing sports hurting your chances. They are by no means a requirement and hurt more people’s chances than they help (time devoted to sports–for non recruits–means less time devoted to activities that count and academics)</p>
<p>Here’s a question for you all
Would it better to play sports but not good enough to be recruited than doing community service?
Because sports are extremely more time-consuming and tiring than community service. If they are worth the same, why not just be doing community service</p>
<p>As long as you’re doing something, it doesn’t matter if it’s sports, clubs, etc. What they want to see is your involvement and leadership. Everyone should have community service.</p>
<p>My D got into some of the most selective colleges in the country and didn’t have any organized sports in or out of HS. The closest thing was outdoor activities with the family, but she did have substantial involvement in school clubs and community organizations.</p>
<p>It isn’t what you do (sports, robotics, whatever), it is how you do them. EC’s are used as another way to get to know an applicant so EC’s that show dedication, responsibility, or other positive traits will be looked at equally. Do what you like, you will be better at it.</p>
<p>I think that schools should consider varsity sports as “better” than most community service work just because of the huge disparity in time commitment. At least for me, I would always get worse grades first quarter because of the golf season. And when I tried out for tennis for two weeks freshman year, almost all my classes dropped at least 1 full letter grade. Back to golf, I played for two hours a day during the spring, and I really couldn’t do any summer activities besides golf and some local volunteering. </p>
<p>If I were to spend the time I spent on golf doing academics, summer research, or additional clubs, I would have had a better chance getting into college assuming the varsity sport didn’t count. So, I really don’t think a sport is a huge plus, it is just something that I think colleges should consider when they have a varsity athlete and non-athlete who have comparable stats, essays, and other ECs (and thus should take the athlete). I don’t know if they do this, though.</p>
<p>Not doing any given activity will affect your chances. It all depends on what you do do.</p>
<p>^Agreed with pFNMCp. (btw what does that stand for 
) </p>
<p>Anyways, college admissions officers do not expect everyone to be athletic, because face it, not everyone – realistically speaking – can be athletic. It just depends on what you choose to do, how much you enjoy it, and to what degree do you pursue it. I can tell you that at my school not everyone who got an admit to the top privates were athletic … but they truly were pretty artsy, musical, and active in community service … so that makes up for it. </p>
<p>… on the other hand, yes, I agree that sports are time-consuming. But remember that many HS students choose to play sports, so don’t you think that will make it boring for the admission officers who read through thousands of files?</p>
<p>Colleges are NOT looking to fill their freshmen classes with two thousand kids who are exactly alike. They want athletes, musicians, smart kids, creative kids, kids who volunteer to tutor… you get the idea. Do whatever you like and like what you are doing and that will serve your college admissions the best. (Disclaimer: if what you like to do best is sit in your room and play video games online, that will NOT be good for admissions unless you are going into video game design and are a genius. Find an activity that connects you in some way with other people)</p>
<p>^Actually if you have THAT much passion for video games, you’d be doing an internship at a video game company or freelancing (creating your own) video games.</p>
<p>^Not necessarily. If your passion is just playing the games in your room, you won’t have any ECs in the video-game realm unless you become a pro (whether that means professional video game player or paid game tester or anything else I can’t think of). Yes, many passionate gamers work at Gamestop or Nintendo or whatnot, but I’m sure that a similar (if not more) amount also do nothing but play. Just like computer types. Some people like to use their knowledge for good and work in Geeksquad, others just want to hack.</p>
<p>^The most extreme passionate gamers who don’t want to mess with programming work at IGN to criticize people who do publish games. </p>
<p>Actually, that job sounds nice. :)</p>
<p>Two kids accepted at Ivies, one had no sports, the other was recruited. Depends on your overall package.</p>