Does being captain of a sports team help in admission

[Anonymous]

My child is a captain of a sports team at TJ and want to know how it helps in top 10 college admission. Can one of the essays be written on the work done as a captain?

[Anonymous]

It's a good thing to have, and it checks a box for leadership, but not for an essay question. Consider the number of high schools in the country, the number of sports teams at each high school and the number of captains each team has: that's a lot of captains.

[Anonymous]

It's better than nothing, but it's not really moving the needle much.

The only possible reason I could see your kid writing an essay about it is because it is TJ. I can't imagine many TJ applicants ever talk about sports in great detail...so perhaps this qualifies as a unique essay.

In general, it's not a compelling essay topic.

[Anonymous]

Don't.

My kid got into several T10s last year. He's at an Ivy this year. He didn't write anything about sports. And the sport and title 'captain' was featured in the common app activities.

He had a lot of injury and obstacle overcome in the sport ---but wrote nothing about it.

[Anonymous]

It's trite.

Usually essay people strongly advise against it.

[Anonymous]

do not write about it in ANY essay. Put as #1 on activities list though.

[Anonymous]

It certainly does, even for JV. In fact, there is one line for JV/Varsity sports on the common app so all lumped together. But you have to tell a story about what you did as captain, not just that you were captain. How did you get the team involved in team spirit? How did you help the coach? How was it difficult to work with younger players?

Colleges are more interested in how your students helped others and lead others than the actual athletic pursuit (unless your student is a recruited athlete).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It certainly does, even for JV. In fact, there is one line for JV/Varsity sports on the common app so all lumped together. But you have to tell a story about what you did as captain, not just that you were captain. How did you get the team involved in team spirit? How did you help the coach? How was it difficult to work with younger players?

Colleges are more interested in how your students helped others and lead others than the actual athletic pursuit (unless your student is a recruited athlete).

Agree that athletics are not what should be written about in the essay. Too much of that for admissions officers. Find something unique to talk about,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It certainly does, even for JV. In fact, there is one line for JV/Varsity sports on the common app so all lumped together. But you have to tell a story about what you did as captain, not just that you were captain. How did you get the team involved in team spirit? How did you help the coach? How was it difficult to work with younger players?

Colleges are more interested in how your students helped others and lead others than the actual athletic pursuit (unless your student is a recruited athlete).

Agree that athletics are not what should be written about in the essay. Too much of that for admissions officers. Find something unique to talk about,

Meh. AOs have seen everything. You will never contrive something they have never seen before. Just do your best to put your own spin on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It certainly does, even for JV. In fact, there is one line for JV/Varsity sports on the common app so all lumped together. But you have to tell a story about what you did as captain, not just that you were captain. How did you get the team involved in team spirit? How did you help the coach? How was it difficult to work with younger players?

Colleges are more interested in how your students helped others and lead others than the actual athletic pursuit (unless your student is a recruited athlete).

Agree that athletics are not what should be written about in the essay. Too much of that for admissions officers. Find something unique to talk about,

Meh. AOs have seen everything. You will never contrive something they have never seen before. Just do your best to put your own spin on it.

It shouldn’t be “I worked really hard and got moved up to varsity from JV …”

[Anonymous]

My DS, who was captain and MVP of his sport, wrote about a hiking trip he took and how he helped other kids to be leaders on the trip who had special needs. He is at an Ivy now.

[Anonymous]

It's not out of the question for an essay, but he'd have to put an original spin on it. Tell one very specific story vs. just pontificating about leadership skills, that one big game, etc.

[Anonymous]

I think if you don’t have a real hardship that you overcame, colleges are expecting to see that you helped others. That you shared your privilege in some way.

[Anonymous]

My son is not writing about this (he has another topic) but perhaps the most resilient thing he's done in his 17 years is to ride the bench (zero playing time) for 15 straight varsity baseball games (despite playing years of high level travel baseball) but then creating a role for himself as the designated pinch runner (with great enthusiasm) and then moving into a position role when another player got injured and ending the season as a starter and the lead-off hitter (on a really high level team that played in our state championship--none DMV).

Sports can have great material for essays, no matter how overdone the subject matter.

[Anonymous]

No doubt that is resilience. But other kids are coming from foster care, inner city, have special needs and so on.

I think the key is how have you helped others. What did you do with your privilege? (Pretty sure some of the supplemental questions ask things like this.)