Ideas for extracurriculars for an athlete with no time

[Anonymous]

volunteer for a sleep research study.

[Anonymous]

Does his school have a "study hall" block? In FCPS, all high schools have a 45-minute period every other day (at Chantilly HS, we call it Charger Time) to do homework, meet with a teacher, etc. He should find a club that meets during this time slot. He should also make sure that he gets a part-time summer job. Lots of restaurant jobs and grocery store jobs have evening shifts available. (I am assuming he swims in the mornings during the summer?)

[Anonymous]

If your kid gets recruited and applies ED, he'll be fine. High SAT score is more important than additional activities (esp. if goes D3 route because most of the best D3 swim schools are very tough academically). He should work for leadership and awards w/in swimming (e.g., Captain of high school team, all-state teams, etc.). Perhaps some volunteer work would be good too. If he ends up applying ED to the school he's recruited to and it's one and done, none of this really matters. But if that's doesn't happen and he has to apply to a bunch of schools, he'll need to write a lot of college essays. The schools don't want to just hear about swimming, so that may be where having other interests/activities (e.g., art, volunteering, etc.) can be important.

[Anonymous]

Can he do any charity drives involving swimming like Save the Bay or an environmental group with a focus on the ocean?

[Anonymous]

Pick a few colleges, go to the swim team roster. Google the swimmers names and look at their linked in pages to see what they have accomplished.

[Anonymous]

If he is truly being recruited for D1 (Jr Nats, futures times), then ECs do not matter. The only thing that matters are times and grades/ scores (to pass a pre read, depending on the school). If he is a recruited athlete, he'll apply to the one school to which he verbally committed and that is it. Our college coach said the optional essays were actually optional, so additional ECs don't matter. If he doesn't verbally commit and applies to a number of schools, he will want to craft his essays around swimming including teaching, competing, etc. Right now, he should be doing things that he enjoys and not manufacturing ECs for a college app.

[Anonymous]

The main reason to diversify your son’s experience is to prepare him for the day that swimming ends - whether that day happens sooner due to an injury or not getting recruited as planned - or later at the end of college, The deeper he is down this road the harder it is to pivot.

[Anonymous]

You just named 6 different significant things he will list on his common app: HS team, year-round team, summer team, coaching, swim lessons, student gov. Yes, that is plenty. If he's interested in something else, by all means, he should do that. But don't make him do something just to do something else. He sounds plenty busy.

[Anonymous]

Everyone always forgets that extracurricular activities do t have to be “organized”. If he likes doing art on his own time you can list that as an activity. If he likes to read on his own time you can list that as an activity. They just want to know what interests your child and how they spend their free time.

[Anonymous]

He needs to tutor refugees while doing 100 Meter backstroke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:volunteer for a sleep research study.

Lol

[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?

You break up the swim activities – you don’t reference coaching and lessons as swimming. You reference it as volunteer and community efforts to help others and younger students.,

[Anonymous]

If your student is going to be getting recruited, he does not need a bunch of additional extracurriculars.

[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.

+1000
He is "checking all the boxes" with activities related to swimming. No harm in that. In fact, many AO/colleges like to see "pointy" applicants--which your son is.
Just make sure you document all these activities and break them out into 7-8 different ECs for the common app. Start a spreadsheet now with the activities and hours per week and how many weeks per year so you don't miss any later.

[Anonymous]

My daughter was selected as an athlete for D1 as a sophomore. There was nothing extra. The coaches wanted her for her skills and didn’t care if she was volunteering or starting a passion project. They just wanted her to play.