If your kid wants to go to a selective university, do not let them play sports in high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid can dunk a basketball, that's worth a lot.

Mine can dunk. Still didn't get a call from Duke.

Many of the best universities - Ivy League, Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Berkeley, even Rice - have serious D1 sports programs. If you are shooting for these schools, unless you are recruitable it doesn't make much sense to devote 20-30 hours a week in high school to a sport. Varsity, travel, and AAU sports are extremely time consuming and come with an enormous opportunity cost. You can't play varsity or club soccer or whatever and be editor in chief of the school newspaper, or president of DECA, or a nationally ranked debater, or compete in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, or do any of the other things that are expected for admissions to T20 schools.

My very good basketball player who can dunk with his teeth but wasn't recruitable at the D1 level decided the time commitment for AAU and varsity was too much. End of sophomore year, he dialed basketball down to rec and focused on other ECs and leadership. And he attends one of the schools listed above - not because he plays basketball, but because he dropped competitive basketball and used his time to, first, do extraordinarily well academically, and second, pursue prominent and interesting ECs that made him stand out to admissions offices. There is no chance he'd be attending a T20 today if he had continued to play basketball at the highest level, even though he was very good.

Being reasonably good at a sport might help for D3 schools. But it does nothing for the super-competitive D1 schools. Non-recruitable high school athletes who are aiming for the most selective D1 schools really do have to make choices. Time is time. There are only 24 hours in a day. Every high school athlete needs to figure out the best use of their time in order to achieve their goals. For most, a sport isn't going to be the best way to get into Duke or Vanderbilt or Stanford or similar. Unless you have Cooper Flagg or Katie Ledecky talent, it's going to be an inefficient use of time when it comes to applying to most T20 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid can dunk a basketball, that's worth a lot.

Mine can dunk. Still didn't get a call from Duke.

Many of the best universities - Ivy League, Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Berkeley, even Rice - have serious D1 sports programs. If you are shooting for these schools, unless you are recruitable it doesn't make much sense to devote 20-30 hours a week in high school to a sport. Varsity, travel, and AAU sports are extremely time consuming and come with an enormous opportunity cost. You can't play varsity or club soccer or whatever and be editor in chief of the school newspaper, or president of DECA, or a nationally ranked debater, or compete in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, or do any of the other things that are expected for admissions to T20 schools.

My very good basketball player who can dunk with his teeth but wasn't recruitable at the D1 level decided the time commitment for AAU and varsity was too much. End of sophomore year, he dialed basketball down to rec and focused on other ECs and leadership. And he attends one of the schools listed above - not because he plays basketball, but because he dropped competitive basketball and used his time to, first, do extraordinarily well academically, and second, pursue prominent and interesting ECs that made him stand out to admissions offices. There is no chance he'd be attending a T20 today if he had continued to play basketball at the highest level, even though he was very good.

Being reasonably good at a sport might help for D3 schools. But it does nothing for the super-competitive D1 schools. Non-recruitable high school athletes who are aiming for the most selective D1 schools really do have to make choices. Time is time. There are only 24 hours in a day. Every high school athlete needs to figure out the best use of their time in order to achieve their goals. For most, a sport isn't going to be the best way to get into Duke or Vanderbilt or Stanford or similar. Unless you have Cooper Flagg or Katie Ledecky talent, it's going to be an inefficient use of time when it comes to applying to most T20 schools.

In fairness, many of the AAU teams are basically the "cut" if you are D1 or not

Go look at Team Durant. Every kid on that team has multiple D1 offers...many Power 4. They are also the star players for Sidwell, PVI, Gonzaga, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid can dunk a basketball, that's worth a lot.

Mine can dunk. Still didn't get a call from Duke.

Many of the best universities - Ivy League, Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Berkeley, even Rice - have serious D1 sports programs. If you are shooting for these schools, unless you are recruitable it doesn't make much sense to devote 20-30 hours a week in high school to a sport. Varsity, travel, and AAU sports are extremely time consuming and come with an enormous opportunity cost. You can't play varsity or club soccer or whatever and be editor in chief of the school newspaper, or president of DECA, or a nationally ranked debater, or compete in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, or do any of the other things that are expected for admissions to T20 schools.

My very good basketball player who can dunk with his teeth but wasn't recruitable at the D1 level decided the time commitment for AAU and varsity was too much. End of sophomore year, he dialed basketball down to rec and focused on other ECs and leadership. And he attends one of the schools listed above - not because he plays basketball, but because he dropped competitive basketball and used his time to, first, do extraordinarily well academically, and second, pursue prominent and interesting ECs that made him stand out to admissions offices. There is no chance he'd be attending a T20 today if he had continued to play basketball at the highest level, even though he was very good.

Being reasonably good at a sport might help for D3 schools. But it does nothing for the super-competitive D1 schools. Non-recruitable high school athletes who are aiming for the most selective D1 schools really do have to make choices. Time is time. There are only 24 hours in a day. Every high school athlete needs to figure out the best use of their time in order to achieve their goals. For most, a sport isn't going to be the best way to get into Duke or Vanderbilt or Stanford or similar. Unless you have Cooper Flagg or Katie Ledecky talent, it's going to be an inefficient use of time when it comes to applying to most T20 schools.

In fairness, many of the AAU teams are basically the "cut" if you are D1 or not

Go look at Team Durant. Every kid on that team has multiple D1 offers...many Power 4. They are also the star players for Sidwell, PVI, Gonzaga, etc.

Another variability with D1 level basketball is growth spurts in high school. You can't count or plan on these things. I'm the poster above with the kid with the hops. But he maxed out at 6'2. And 6'2 forwards don't play D1. Basketball in particular is probably the toughest sport when it comes to D1 recruiting. It's generally not a great investment in time for smart kids looking to go T20 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:🙄

There’s more to life than sacrificing your kid’s authenticity and interests to try to match the ever-changing whims of admissions committees.

Sure, if your kid doesn’t like sports, don’t force them to play one in an attempt to impress admissions. That’s silly and worthless. Same is true if they’re all-in on their instrument, musical theater, dance, or any other super time-consuming passion.

But if your kid loves sports (or the equivalent) and wants to pursue it in HS but not at a recruited level, there’s plenty of upside for them as a human being: authenticity, grit, leadership, social skills, physical health, mental health/wellness, and more.

All that said, if playing three varsity sports is what keeps our 4.0/1500+/12AP student out of the T-20, that’s fine with us. We’re thrilled to see our kid enjoy and excel at the EC’s they have chosen. It’s been wonderful for their growth, resilience, sense of self, and relationships with their peers, coaches, and teachers, alike.

IMHO that’s more important in the long run than dropping their authentic self in an attempt to make themself marginally more attractive to a school with an already tiny rate of admission. But you do you.

It is not a marginal boost. I don’t think that many parents realize here how much sports actively hurt your chances in admissions because of the time factor. Most college admissions advisors actively tell kids to give up on sports if they aren’t being recruited

First of all, who are you to make the claim that "most" college admissions advisors actively tell kids to give up sports if they aren't recruits? Are you an admissions advisor? Second, DS was not penalized in any way in the admissions process for playing sports. Did he have to work hard to juggle academics and athletics in HS? yep. Did he learn a lot about time management that prepared him for college? yep. Did he have top grades and scores and get into a T20? yep. Here's what he did not do: make his whole personality (and personal statement/application etc) about sports. If your kid enjoys sports, let them play sports.

New poster here. I consulted with at least 3 national college counselors and each of them basically said that unless your kid is going to be recruited, they should probably not play sports because sports will take up too much of their time and make it harder to stand out in other ECs. I generally agree that sports is not enough unless you're going to be a recruit and my kids learned in 9th grade that speech and debate meets every day after school and has weekend tournaments, same thing with robotics, newspaper, etc. So, it's not an untrue statement that your kid needs to go beyond sports, which it sounds like your kid did, in order to stand out from a very competitive applicant pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid can dunk a basketball, that's worth a lot.

Mine can dunk. Still didn't get a call from Duke.

Many of the best universities - Ivy League, Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Berkeley, even Rice - have serious D1 sports programs. If you are shooting for these schools, unless you are recruitable it doesn't make much sense to devote 20-30 hours a week in high school to a sport. Varsity, travel, and AAU sports are extremely time consuming and come with an enormous opportunity cost. You can't play varsity or club soccer or whatever and be editor in chief of the school newspaper, or president of DECA, or a nationally ranked debater, or compete in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, or do any of the other things that are expected for admissions to T20 schools.

My very good basketball player who can dunk with his teeth but wasn't recruitable at the D1 level decided the time commitment for AAU and varsity was too much. End of sophomore year, he dialed basketball down to rec and focused on other ECs and leadership. And he attends one of the schools listed above - not because he plays basketball, but because he dropped competitive basketball and used his time to, first, do extraordinarily well academically, and second, pursue prominent and interesting ECs that made him stand out to admissions offices. There is no chance he'd be attending a T20 today if he had continued to play basketball at the highest level, even though he was very good.

Being reasonably good at a sport might help for D3 schools. But it does nothing for the super-competitive D1 schools. Non-recruitable high school athletes who are aiming for the most selective D1 schools really do have to make choices. Time is time. There are only 24 hours in a day. Every high school athlete needs to figure out the best use of their time in order to achieve their goals. For most, a sport isn't going to be the best way to get into Duke or Vanderbilt or Stanford or similar. Unless you have Cooper Flagg or Katie Ledecky talent, it's going to be an inefficient use of time when it comes to applying to most T20 schools.

In fairness, many of the AAU teams are basically the "cut" if you are D1 or not

Go look at Team Durant. Every kid on that team has multiple D1 offers...many Power 4. They are also the star players for Sidwell, PVI, Gonzaga, etc.

Another variability with D1 level basketball is growth spurts in high school. You can't count or plan on these things. I'm the poster above with the kid with the hops. But he maxed out at 6'2. And 6'2 forwards don't play D1. Basketball in particular is probably the toughest sport when it comes to D1 recruiting. It's generally not a great investment in time for smart kids looking to go T20 schools.

Unless they are Steph Curry...but I guess he's not a forward (though he is 6'2").

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid can dunk a basketball, that's worth a lot.

Mine can dunk. Still didn't get a call from Duke.

Many of the best universities - Ivy League, Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Berkeley, even Rice - have serious D1 sports programs. If you are shooting for these schools, unless you are recruitable it doesn't make much sense to devote 20-30 hours a week in high school to a sport. Varsity, travel, and AAU sports are extremely time consuming and come with an enormous opportunity cost. You can't play varsity or club soccer or whatever and be editor in chief of the school newspaper, or president of DECA, or a nationally ranked debater, or compete in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, or do any of the other things that are expected for admissions to T20 schools.

My very good basketball player who can dunk with his teeth but wasn't recruitable at the D1 level decided the time commitment for AAU and varsity was too much. End of sophomore year, he dialed basketball down to rec and focused on other ECs and leadership. And he attends one of the schools listed above - not because he plays basketball, but because he dropped competitive basketball and used his time to, first, do extraordinarily well academically, and second, pursue prominent and interesting ECs that made him stand out to admissions offices. There is no chance he'd be attending a T20 today if he had continued to play basketball at the highest level, even though he was very good.

Being reasonably good at a sport might help for D3 schools. But it does nothing for the super-competitive D1 schools. Non-recruitable high school athletes who are aiming for the most selective D1 schools really do have to make choices. Time is time. There are only 24 hours in a day. Every high school athlete needs to figure out the best use of their time in order to achieve their goals. For most, a sport isn't going to be the best way to get into Duke or Vanderbilt or Stanford or similar. Unless you have Cooper Flagg or Katie Ledecky talent, it's going to be an inefficient use of time when it comes to applying to most T20 schools.

Are you aware that you just gave an example of a kid that played sports and got into great colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid can dunk a basketball, that's worth a lot.

Mine can dunk. Still didn't get a call from Duke.

Many of the best universities - Ivy League, Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Berkeley, even Rice - have serious D1 sports programs. If you are shooting for these schools, unless you are recruitable it doesn't make much sense to devote 20-30 hours a week in high school to a sport. Varsity, travel, and AAU sports are extremely time consuming and come with an enormous opportunity cost. You can't play varsity or club soccer or whatever and be editor in chief of the school newspaper, or president of DECA, or a nationally ranked debater, or compete in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, or do any of the other things that are expected for admissions to T20 schools.

My very good basketball player who can dunk with his teeth but wasn't recruitable at the D1 level decided the time commitment for AAU and varsity was too much. End of sophomore year, he dialed basketball down to rec and focused on other ECs and leadership. And he attends one of the schools listed above - not because he plays basketball, but because he dropped competitive basketball and used his time to, first, do extraordinarily well academically, and second, pursue prominent and interesting ECs that made him stand out to admissions offices. There is no chance he'd be attending a T20 today if he had continued to play basketball at the highest level, even though he was very good.

Being reasonably good at a sport might help for D3 schools. But it does nothing for the super-competitive D1 schools. Non-recruitable high school athletes who are aiming for the most selective D1 schools really do have to make choices. Time is time. There are only 24 hours in a day. Every high school athlete needs to figure out the best use of their time in order to achieve their goals. For most, a sport isn't going to be the best way to get into Duke or Vanderbilt or Stanford or similar. Unless you have Cooper Flagg or Katie Ledecky talent, it's going to be an inefficient use of time when it comes to applying to most T20 schools.

In fairness, many of the AAU teams are basically the "cut" if you are D1 or not

Go look at Team Durant. Every kid on that team has multiple D1 offers...many Power 4. They are also the star players for Sidwell, PVI, Gonzaga, etc.

Another variability with D1 level basketball is growth spurts in high school. You can't count or plan on these things. I'm the poster above with the kid with the hops. But he maxed out at 6'2. And 6'2 forwards don't play D1. Basketball in particular is probably the toughest sport when it comes to D1 recruiting. It's generally not a great investment in time for smart kids looking to go T20 schools.

6'2 is tall enough for the NBA if you are good enough. There's even a 5'7 Japanese guy who recently played in some NBA games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To sum up: Participate in sports because you love to compete, love the camaraderie of teamwork, the personal challenge, the physical activity. Playing a sport is one of the best things one can do with one's time.

But do not participate in sports thinking it will help all that much for college applications, unless being recruited to play on the college level. There is really not more to it than this.

False. That’s not a summary at all.

That’s your personal option again that sports, esp team sports, take up too much time.

You’re wrong because there are scholar athletes everywhere who are attractive candidates for colleges and who don’t desire to play college sports, but club or other college ECs and focus on their majors, study abroad, internships, networking and friends.

Get over it OP. Not everyone wants to sit on their butt coding or doing hours of robotics.

Honestly the same thing can be said about robotics... and pretty much everything else

The amount of time dedication and talent it takes to turn robotics into an extracurricular activity that is noticably more impressive than varsity sports is huge.

You want to build a competitive robot for the FIRST or Vex competition? That one activity crowds out pretty much everything else.

You want to get invited to the USAMO? You are going to be spending almost all your time on it.

You want to be a regeneron semifinalist, forget about the USAMO or robotics or the football team.

The academic extracurriculars are important to have, but if you aren't pointy (winning at least at the state level), it doesn't really help that much, you might as well touch some grass.

And yet every year, IVY+ takes kids that aren't winning competitions or being recruited athletically.

If you don't get in, maybe you are actually better off elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is recruited, admissions officers do not really care about sports. I know a kid who has perfect grades and a 35 ACT who was a captain of the varsity football and lacrosse teams (and was class treasurer, NHS president, volunteered, and did part time work), and he got rejected from every remotely selective college. The Ivy Leagues, Notre Dame, Michigan, Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, UNC, and UVA all rejected him. Many other kids who are two or three sports athletes have similarly bad results.

At most top schools, the students will tell you most people there did not play sports outside of the recruited athletes. Most of their extracurriculars were centered around the major they want to study. Sports are time consuming and take away time from these more impactful extracurriculars. For sports like basketball, baseball, or lacrosse, you are easily spending 20+ hours per week on an activity that ultimately won’t help you in admissions.

And it doesn’t help that in the DMV area, you have to be super talented or spend years playing a sport just to make into the JV team. You have to spend a ridiculous amount of money on sports. Sports are just a waste of time for most kids

I agree that varsity sports is not an impactful EC if I was to do it all over ago. Unless you are recruited athlete, it would help to focus more on grades.

If your kid can’t get straight As WHILE playing a varsity sport then they are not elite college material, sorry.

This is the reality. Colleges are looking for the ability to manage multiple responsibilities WHILE excelling. It could be trumpet, robotics - or sports.

To be fair, there is a bias towards academic activity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid can dunk a basketball, that's worth a lot.

Mine can dunk. Still didn't get a call from Duke.

Many of the best universities - Ivy League, Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Berkeley, even Rice - have serious D1 sports programs. If you are shooting for these schools, unless you are recruitable it doesn't make much sense to devote 20-30 hours a week in high school to a sport. Varsity, travel, and AAU sports are extremely time consuming and come with an enormous opportunity cost. You can't play varsity or club soccer or whatever and be editor in chief of the school newspaper, or president of DECA, or a nationally ranked debater, or compete in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, or do any of the other things that are expected for admissions to T20 schools.

My very good basketball player who can dunk with his teeth but wasn't recruitable at the D1 level decided the time commitment for AAU and varsity was too much. End of sophomore year, he dialed basketball down to rec and focused on other ECs and leadership. And he attends one of the schools listed above - not because he plays basketball, but because he dropped competitive basketball and used his time to, first, do extraordinarily well academically, and second, pursue prominent and interesting ECs that made him stand out to admissions offices. There is no chance he'd be attending a T20 today if he had continued to play basketball at the highest level, even though he was very good.

Being reasonably good at a sport might help for D3 schools. But it does nothing for the super-competitive D1 schools. Non-recruitable high school athletes who are aiming for the most selective D1 schools really do have to make choices. Time is time. There are only 24 hours in a day. Every high school athlete needs to figure out the best use of their time in order to achieve their goals. For most, a sport isn't going to be the best way to get into Duke or Vanderbilt or Stanford or similar. Unless you have Cooper Flagg or Katie Ledecky talent, it's going to be an inefficient use of time when it comes to applying to most T20 schools.

In fairness, many of the AAU teams are basically the "cut" if you are D1 or not

Go look at Team Durant. Every kid on that team has multiple D1 offers...many Power 4. They are also the star players for Sidwell, PVI, Gonzaga, etc.

Another variability with D1 level basketball is growth spurts in high school. You can't count or plan on these things. I'm the poster above with the kid with the hops. But he maxed out at 6'2. And 6'2 forwards don't play D1. Basketball in particular is probably the toughest sport when it comes to D1 recruiting. It's generally not a great investment in time for smart kids looking to go T20 schools.

Unless they are Steph Curry...but I guess he's not a forward (though he is 6'2").

He got one offer and his father is Dell Curry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid can dunk a basketball, that's worth a lot.

Mine can dunk. Still didn't get a call from Duke.

Many of the best universities - Ivy League, Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Berkeley, even Rice - have serious D1 sports programs. If you are shooting for these schools, unless you are recruitable it doesn't make much sense to devote 20-30 hours a week in high school to a sport. Varsity, travel, and AAU sports are extremely time consuming and come with an enormous opportunity cost. You can't play varsity or club soccer or whatever and be editor in chief of the school newspaper, or president of DECA, or a nationally ranked debater, or compete in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, or do any of the other things that are expected for admissions to T20 schools.

My very good basketball player who can dunk with his teeth but wasn't recruitable at the D1 level decided the time commitment for AAU and varsity was too much. End of sophomore year, he dialed basketball down to rec and focused on other ECs and leadership. And he attends one of the schools listed above - not because he plays basketball, but because he dropped competitive basketball and used his time to, first, do extraordinarily well academically, and second, pursue prominent and interesting ECs that made him stand out to admissions offices. There is no chance he'd be attending a T20 today if he had continued to play basketball at the highest level, even though he was very good.

Being reasonably good at a sport might help for D3 schools. But it does nothing for the super-competitive D1 schools. Non-recruitable high school athletes who are aiming for the most selective D1 schools really do have to make choices. Time is time. There are only 24 hours in a day. Every high school athlete needs to figure out the best use of their time in order to achieve their goals. For most, a sport isn't going to be the best way to get into Duke or Vanderbilt or Stanford or similar. Unless you have Cooper Flagg or Katie Ledecky talent, it's going to be an inefficient use of time when it comes to applying to most T20 schools.

I have a kid who was recruited for sports, so I know how that works. I don't know how other ECs work, especially "editor in chief of the school newspaper, or president of DECA, or a nationally ranked debater, or compete in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, or do any of the other things that are expected for admissions to T20 schools."

It is certainly true that your kid has to choose how best to allocate their time. But the assumption appears to be that you can know before your kid is in high school that they aren't a "recruitable" athlete (and thus they should go do some "other" EC instead). In my experience this is not true. Your athlete kid will most likely have been on a travel team in grade school and middle school. You have a general sense of how good they are, but in most cases you won't know that they are likely to get recruited until sophomore or junior year. In your case, your kid decided for himself to give up sports and do something else. That's fine. But how many parents would be willing to order their athlete to quit their sport (which they love and have put years of time into) and do some other thing they haven't spent any time on at all, just for the purpose of applying to college? I certainly wouldn't have done that.

As for other types of ECs, how far back do they have to start doing that? Can you become "editor in chief of the school newspaper, president of DECA or a nationally ranked debater" from a cold start in the middle of high school? Apparently your kid starting doing non-sport ECs junior year, but the general consensus is that AOs want to see long-standing passion and depth of commitment. Starting a new EC junior year doesn't really do that.

If your kid is in middle school and you know that they are (say) "nationally ranked debater" material but only a "very good but not recruitable" athlete, then obviously the kid should focus on debate rather than sport (assuming that's what they want to do). But I don't think most 8th graders (or their parents) have that definite level of knowledge of their potential in sports or other ECs. What if the kid switched from sports to debate but didn't become "nationally ranked"? In that case the kid was no better off than an athlete who didn't get recruited. Is it really all that easy to just choose to do the kind of "high level" EC that gets you into a T20 school? If so why doesn't every kid do that?

"Unless you have Cooper Flagg or Katie Ledecky talent, it's going to be an inefficient use of time when it comes to applying to most T20 schools." - well life isn't all about perfectly optimizing your time and being totally efficient, especially when you're a high school kid. The kid's interests and passions are a critical factor. If you make them quit sports because "it's not efficient" and go do some other EC that doesn't really interest them, then they will resent you and probably won't succeed in the EC that you forced them to do instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid can dunk a basketball, that's worth a lot.

Mine can dunk. Still didn't get a call from Duke.

Many of the best universities - Ivy League, Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Berkeley, even Rice - have serious D1 sports programs. If you are shooting for these schools, unless you are recruitable it doesn't make much sense to devote 20-30 hours a week in high school to a sport. Varsity, travel, and AAU sports are extremely time consuming and come with an enormous opportunity cost. You can't play varsity or club soccer or whatever and be editor in chief of the school newspaper, or president of DECA, or a nationally ranked debater, or compete in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, or do any of the other things that are expected for admissions to T20 schools.

My very good basketball player who can dunk with his teeth but wasn't recruitable at the D1 level decided the time commitment for AAU and varsity was too much. End of sophomore year, he dialed basketball down to rec and focused on other ECs and leadership. And he attends one of the schools listed above - not because he plays basketball, but because he dropped competitive basketball and used his time to, first, do extraordinarily well academically, and second, pursue prominent and interesting ECs that made him stand out to admissions offices. There is no chance he'd be attending a T20 today if he had continued to play basketball at the highest level, even though he was very good.

Being reasonably good at a sport might help for D3 schools. But it does nothing for the super-competitive D1 schools. Non-recruitable high school athletes who are aiming for the most selective D1 schools really do have to make choices. Time is time. There are only 24 hours in a day. Every high school athlete needs to figure out the best use of their time in order to achieve their goals. For most, a sport isn't going to be the best way to get into Duke or Vanderbilt or Stanford or similar. Unless you have Cooper Flagg or Katie Ledecky talent, it's going to be an inefficient use of time when it comes to applying to most T20 schools.

what types of things are these?

[Anonymous]

But what if your kid enjoys the sport? It is sad that you only mention whether it impacted college selectivity.

The teen years are part of a kid’s childhood. Teach them healthy balance in life. That goes for status-seeking also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To sum up: Participate in sports because you love to compete, love the camaraderie of teamwork, the personal challenge, the physical activity. Playing a sport is one of the best things one can do with one's time.

But do not participate in sports thinking it will help all that much for college applications, unless being recruited to play on the college level. There is really not more to it than this.

False. That’s not a summary at all.

That’s your personal option again that sports, esp team sports, take up too much time.

You’re wrong because there are scholar athletes everywhere who are attractive candidates for colleges and who don’t desire to play college sports, but club or other college ECs and focus on their majors, study abroad, internships, networking and friends.

Get over it OP. Not everyone wants to sit on their butt coding or doing hours of robotics.

Honestly the same thing can be said about robotics... and pretty much everything else

The amount of time dedication and talent it takes to turn robotics into an extracurricular activity that is noticably more impressive than varsity sports is huge.

You want to build a competitive robot for the FIRST or Vex competition? That one activity crowds out pretty much everything else.

You want to get invited to the USAMO? You are going to be spending almost all your time on it.

You want to be a regeneron semifinalist, forget about the USAMO or robotics or the football team.

The academic extracurriculars are important to have, but if you aren't pointy (winning at least at the state level), it doesn't really help that much, you might as well touch some grass.

And yet every year, IVY+ takes kids that aren't winning competitions or being recruited athletically.

If you don't get in, maybe you are actually better off elsewhere.

Np. I feel like you guys need a primer on what AO are looking for. They seem SOOO may Robotics/Vex/USAMO - it doesn't even phase them anymore. They are bored when they read those applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:🙄

There’s more to life than sacrificing your kid’s authenticity and interests to try to match the ever-changing whims of admissions committees.

Sure, if your kid doesn’t like sports, don’t force them to play one in an attempt to impress admissions. That’s silly and worthless. Same is true if they’re all-in on their instrument, musical theater, dance, or any other super time-consuming passion.

But if your kid loves sports (or the equivalent) and wants to pursue it in HS but not at a recruited level, there’s plenty of upside for them as a human being: authenticity, grit, leadership, social skills, physical health, mental health/wellness, and more.

All that said, if playing three varsity sports is what keeps our 4.0/1500+/12AP student out of the T-20, that’s fine with us. We’re thrilled to see our kid enjoy and excel at the EC’s they have chosen. It’s been wonderful for their growth, resilience, sense of self, and relationships with their peers, coaches, and teachers, alike.

IMHO that’s more important in the long run than dropping their authentic self in an attempt to make themself marginally more attractive to a school with an already tiny rate of admission. But you do you.

It is not a marginal boost. I don’t think that many parents realize here how much sports actively hurt your chances in admissions because of the time factor. Most college admissions advisors actively tell kids to give up on sports if they aren’t being recruited

First of all, who are you to make the claim that "most" college admissions advisors actively tell kids to give up sports if they aren't recruits? Are you an admissions advisor? Second, DS was not penalized in any way in the admissions process for playing sports. Did he have to work hard to juggle academics and athletics in HS? yep. Did he learn a lot about time management that prepared him for college? yep. Did he have top grades and scores and get into a T20? yep. Here's what he did not do: make his whole personality (and personal statement/application etc) about sports. If your kid enjoys sports, let them play sports.

New poster here. I consulted with at least 3 national college counselors and each of them basically said that unless your kid is going to be recruited, they should probably not play sports because sports will take up too much of their time and make it harder to stand out in other ECs. I generally agree that sports is not enough unless you're going to be a recruit and my kids learned in 9th grade that speech and debate meets every day after school and has weekend tournaments, same thing with robotics, newspaper, etc. So, it's not an untrue statement that your kid needs to go beyond sports, which it sounds like your kid did, in order to stand out from a very competitive applicant pool.

my kid tied their sport into other ECs (community service and job), was involved in 3 clubs at private HS (incl leadership) and then used sport to launch two separate research projects (1 published). Also, state and national level ranking/champion/awards.

It can be done.