Ideas for extracurriculars for an athlete with no time

[Anonymous]

Like most swimmers, my son is in the pool about 320 days a year. He has his club team, HS team and summer team. He has very, very little time.
He coaches and gives private lessons too.
He has one good student government role (not President).

He’s hoping to be recruited to a D1 mid major or D3 SLAC. Grades will be ok - I’d guess a 3.8-3.9 UW with 6-7 APs. Current sophomore so SAT unknown.

Does he need to fill up his application with some more activities? I worry he has so much depth in athletics but other than SSL hours, he has very little else.

Any suggestions? My feeling is he needs one activity that is of some significance and maybe also Art club or related that is not too time consuming but highlights another genuine non academic interest. He is a very good artist but hasn’t had time to develop- maybe focus here?

What do colleges care about? I don’t want to bother with expensive teen programs everyone gets into and did just to put on an application.

Any activities that you think AO are impressed by?

[Anonymous]

Your son coaches and gives lessons and is on student government, has outstanding grades and many APs. Oh, and he’s going to be a recruiter athlete.

I think he’s gonna be okay.

[Anonymous]

PP again - I was a little snarky, I’m sorry. Your son sounds super accomplished. What I think you aren’t seeing is that the lessons and coaching show different skill sets than swimming. They show teamwork, interest in kids, hustle, etc. It’s not more swimming. He doesn’t need more activity to fill in the boxes.

[Anonymous]

He needs to start up a nonprofit. Fortunately you can just hire a company to do that for him. Also hire a PR team to manage his social media. It will come in handy during application season to showcase his strengths.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your son coaches and gives lessons and is on student government, has outstanding grades and many APs. Oh, and he’s going to be a recruiter athlete.

I think he’s gonna be okay.

This 👆

[Anonymous]

Most D1 recruits I know had few significant ECs outside of sports. Mine scarcely had any, though he did do some paid and volunteer coaching. I wouldn’t worry at all in your shoes, though if there’s an area of volunteering he’s particularly into, he could lean into that a bit more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your son coaches and gives lessons and is on student government, has outstanding grades and many APs. Oh, and he’s going to be a recruiter athlete.

I think he’s gonna be okay.

This 👆

I agree. You should not worry about adding EC that he is not interested in, only any that he would like to pursue. If you listen to the podcasts that have AO speak in/contribute to- they can see through all the BS. They will appreciate him for who he is.

[Anonymous]

Studying for the SAT/ACT would be very high yield for him.

[Anonymous]

How can you even guess what his final GPA will be as a sophomore?

[Anonymous]

No need for more activities unless he insists he wants to do more and finds the time. You could probably get this confirmed by a non-anonymous source by simply asking a D3 swim coach.

I agree with 21:48 that prepping for the SAT would be a good use of time.

[Anonymous]

When you start to fill out the EC's on the common app, you will see that you include the amount of time you spend in each activity. For my son, his biggest and really only EC was a sport. When he showed the hours he "worked" at each related activity - it really showed how he used his time. Gone are the days of needing to be "well rounded" with EC's, if your kid is all in on one activity, and you can show that then he's fine. Just have him work on how he displays that on the common app. Each activity can be its own entry - so team sport - high level of play - hours per week, days per month etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP again - I was a little snarky, I’m sorry. Your son sounds super accomplished. What I think you aren’t seeing is that the lessons and coaching show different skill sets than swimming. They show teamwork, interest in kids, hustle, etc. It’s not more swimming. He doesn’t need more activity to fill in the boxes.

This.

[Anonymous]

My swimmer (d3, UAA conference) had very few activities outside of swimming and that was never an issue with admissions/coaches. I would advise that they study for SAT/ACT because a lot of these schools are high academic reach schools.

[Anonymous]

Swimming will not be just one activity- it will be split up between many. Eg. Swim teams, training, teaching plus any accolades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like most swimmers, my son is in the pool about 320 days a year. He has his club team, HS team and summer team. He has very, very little time.
He coaches and gives private lessons too.
He has one good student government role (not President).

He’s hoping to be recruited to a D1 mid major or D3 SLAC. Grades will be ok - I’d guess a 3.8-3.9 UW with 6-7 APs. Current sophomore so SAT unknown.

Does he need to fill up his application with some more activities? I worry he has so much depth in athletics but other than SSL hours, he has very little else.

Any suggestions? My feeling is he needs one activity that is of some significance and maybe also Art club or related that is not too time consuming but highlights another genuine non academic interest. He is a very good artist but hasn’t had time to develop- maybe focus here?

What do colleges care about? I don’t want to bother with expensive teen programs everyone gets into and did just to put on an application.

Any activities that you think AO are impressed by?

I think he is fine, maybe volunteer in swimming related area - private lesson, swim coach assistant, etc.