A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that sports captain doesn't seem to do anything even if it's a main sport at a name brand school (say a place like sidwell) that only has 2 captains per team.

Pretty sure that being captain of the nationally ranked Sidwell basketball teams would open some doors.

Np, because you are an idiot who has no clue what they are talking about. It only matters if they are good enough to be recruited.

My kid was a captain of two different varsity teams at an elite private. College counselors agreed it was the least important of his extracurriculars.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What is elite level athlete? You are either recruitable, or not recruitable.

You can be recruitable but choosing not to play. If a girl was a starter on a nationally ranked team but chose not to play they still have a fantastic EC. If they were a captain on the team even better. They were elite at their main EC which is the bar.

Definitely not true and I say this as a parent of varsity atheletes. If your kid is not an athletic recruit, sports are among the useless ecs. May get some leadership points if kid is a varsity captain, but others pretty useless as far as admission as impact.

My son was a varsity captain of his basketball team but not a recruited athlete but 3 kids on his team were high D1 recruited. The varsity captain helped college admissions tremendously in addition to his strong academics.

Source for this? Where is he going? Captains of teams are ok but generally meaningless. There are many of them at every school...

Accepted to a Top 10 and Top 20.

Not because he was captain of a team.

I know a kid just like this who was captain of the team, graduated in top 10 of his class, and had very high SAT. It was a total package not just one thing. Certainly the sports helped round out that package.

+1 The time commitment and training and travel all year long that some of these varsity sports like football, basketball and lacrosse take with the student still being able to balance that with high academic achievement is something top schools definitely factor.

Misleading. They do, but only a tiny bit.

[Anonymous]

I see there are a lot of first time through parents who are going to be sorely disappointed when they find out being a varsity and club athlete helps not at all if your kid is not recruited. Literally half to two thirds of our private plays a sport seriously, it is completely irrelevant for college admissions.

[Anonymous]

McDonald job is not significant. It’s good for your DC for a variety of reasons, but you’d be delusional to think it’s a big boost for college admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see there are a lot of first time through parents who are going to be sorely disappointed when they find out being a varsity and club athlete helps not at all if your kid is not recruited. Literally half to two thirds of our private plays a sport seriously, it is completely irrelevant for college admissions.

You don’t think that the fact that sports are way more accessible at private schools is a factor in their admissions stats?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see there are a lot of first time through parents who are going to be sorely disappointed when they find out being a varsity and club athlete helps not at all if your kid is not recruited. Literally half to two thirds of our private plays a sport seriously, it is completely irrelevant for college admissions.

You don’t think that the fact that sports are way more accessible at private schools is a factor in their admissions stats?

No, sports are accessible everywhere. And if this is news to you, you are going to be blown away by how hard college admissions are these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see there are a lot of first time through parents who are going to be sorely disappointed when they find out being a varsity and club athlete helps not at all if your kid is not recruited. Literally half to two thirds of our private plays a sport seriously, it is completely irrelevant for college admissions.

I guess if you keep repeating yourself it makes it seem true? We get you have an opinion, even if not base on reality. Move on.

[Anonymous]

Good advice IMO by OP.

Also FYI for someone with a kid not into ECs. My 2026 grad was admitted to every school they applied to (in the T35 to T200?) range with only these ECs:
part-time job and 4 year member of one club related to major

No honor societires but top 20% of class on GPA and a very high SAT score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see there are a lot of first time through parents who are going to be sorely disappointed when they find out being a varsity and club athlete helps not at all if your kid is not recruited. Literally half to two thirds of our private plays a sport seriously, it is completely irrelevant for college admissions.

Not all high school sports are the same or as impressive. I would agree with that. But, kids that are top high school athletes a the varsity level demanding team sports (recruited or not) and maintain excellent academics are appealing to admissions. If you have never had your kid play at a top high school team sport and reach varsity then you have no basis of comparison of the demands on these kids and why the balance of the two makes a difference. Remember, there may be an admissions counselor that is assigned to your kid's initial review of his or her application that has the same background in high school and knows the demands it checks the box for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see there are a lot of first time through parents who are going to be sorely disappointed when they find out being a varsity and club athlete helps not at all if your kid is not recruited. Literally half to two thirds of our private plays a sport seriously, it is completely irrelevant for college admissions.

I guess if you keep repeating yourself it makes it seem true? We get you have an opinion, even if not base on reality. Move on.

Except that person is correct. Even a year round, time intensive club sport conveys nothing more than any other activity, same with HS sports, even those who go states and break records. If you’re looking at schools not in the T20, it it fine to list these activities…but for highly selective schools, they mean little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is elite level athlete? You are either recruitable, or not recruitable.

Sometimes sailing, water polo, and equestrian is not a Div 1 recruit but bc of club teams they are quite valuable to a school if individual natl champs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good advice IMO by OP.

Also FYI for someone with a kid not into ECs. My 2026 grad was admitted to every school they applied to (in the T35 to T200?) range with only these ECs:
part-time job and 4 year member of one club related to major

No honor societires but top 20% of class on GPA and a very high SAT score.

My kid got into in-state UMD and similar universities with no standout extra-curriculars (he did some dog walking and dog fostering). He did have a 4.6 wGPA and a 35 on his ACT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see there are a lot of first time through parents who are going to be sorely disappointed when they find out being a varsity and club athlete helps not at all if your kid is not recruited. Literally half to two thirds of our private plays a sport seriously, it is completely irrelevant for college admissions.

Not all high school sports are the same or as impressive. I would agree with that. But, kids that are top high school athletes a the varsity level demanding team sports (recruited or not) and maintain excellent academics are appealing to admissions. If you have never had your kid play at a top high school team sport and reach varsity then you have no basis of comparison of the demands on these kids and why the balance of the two makes a difference. Remember, there may be an admissions counselor that is assigned to your kid's initial review of his or her application that has the same background in high school and knows the demands it checks the box for them.

lol, I have two kids who played varsity sports at private schools in top independent sports conferences, and one was captain of two teams. Both also played sports at club level during high school. One is going to a H/Y/P and the other is at a top 30. Sports had ZERO to do with their admission. Countless friends of both kids had high stats and high level sports but no other impressive ecs, not a single one got into a T30. And this is from privates that send close to half of the class to T30s.

Btw, each of my kids has both school and private college counselors, they will all tell you varsity/club sports are a weak ec for non-recruits. Play for love of the game and exercise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is elite level athlete? You are either recruitable, or not recruitable.

Sometimes sailing, water polo, and equestrian is not a Div 1 recruit but bc of club teams they are quite valuable to a school if individual natl champs

Water polo and equestrian are NCAA sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is elite level athlete? You are either recruitable, or not recruitable.

Sometimes sailing, water polo, and equestrian is not a Div 1 recruit but bc of club teams they are quite valuable to a school if individual natl champs

Water polo and equestrian are NCAA sports.

Not at every school.

At most top private schools (other than Stanford, Cornell, Brown and Dartmouth) equestrian is a (competitive) club sport. Some schools are hoping to convert it to NCAA eventually.
Yet some private schools in T25 are actively looking for nationally ranked equestrians.