A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"

[Anonymous]

It’s about depth and impact. Any EC can be elite.

[Anonymous]

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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.

What varsity sports?

All of them.

To clarify, have never seen a non recruit with sports as primary ec admitted to a T30. My own kids played volleyball, soccer, lacrosse and track. But friends from the gamut from water polo to golf to field hockey.

Well let me introduce you to my kid. Major varsity sports was his primary. Hours a week all year round. Private Top 10 and Top 20. 3 Top 10 Publics.

If unhooked, this is Miami or USC material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What varsity sports?

All of them.

To clarify, have never seen a non recruit with sports as primary ec admitted to a T30. My own kids played volleyball, soccer, lacrosse and track. But friends from the gamut from water polo to golf to field hockey.

Well let me introduce you to my kid. Major varsity sports was his primary. Hours a week all year round. Private Top 10 and Top 20. 3 Top 10 Publics.

If unhooked, this is Miami or USC material.

Nope...just a baller, a leader on and off the court in HS and a really smart kid to boot. Placed in Algebra 1 in 5th grade. Done posting. Believe what you need to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What varsity sports?

All of them.

To clarify, have never seen a non recruit with sports as primary ec admitted to a T30. My own kids played volleyball, soccer, lacrosse and track. But friends from the gamut from water polo to golf to field hockey.

Well let me introduce you to my kid. Major varsity sports was his primary. Hours a week all year round. Private Top 10 and Top 20. 3 Top 10 Publics.

If unhooked, this is Miami or USC material.

Nope...just a baller, a leader on and off the court in HS and a really smart kid to boot. Placed in Algebra 1 in 5th grade. Done posting. Believe what you need to.

But he never played the sport for his college, that’s your claim. And he never did anything with his math ability in high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What varsity sports?

All of them.

To clarify, have never seen a non recruit with sports as primary ec admitted to a T30. My own kids played volleyball, soccer, lacrosse and track. But friends from the gamut from water polo to golf to field hockey.

Well let me introduce you to my kid. Major varsity sports was his primary. Hours a week all year round. Private Top 10 and Top 20. 3 Top 10 Publics.

NP: name the high school and name the colleges your kid was admitted into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Name which ones. Equestrian is primarily big enough to recruit only a lower academic schools.

There are some "equestrian" admits that are really admitted because they are development cases with billionaire dads. The schools could care less about equestrian, they just want daddy to donate a building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What varsity sports?

All of them.

To clarify, have never seen a non recruit with sports as primary ec admitted to a T30. My own kids played volleyball, soccer, lacrosse and track. But friends from the gamut from water polo to golf to field hockey.

Well let me introduce you to my kid. Major varsity sports was his primary. Hours a week all year round. Private Top 10 and Top 20. 3 Top 10 Publics.

If unhooked, this is Miami or USC material.

Nope...just a baller, a leader on and off the court in HS and a really smart kid to boot. Placed in Algebra 1 in 5th grade. Done posting. Believe what you need to.

Stop fantasizing, mom. Soon you will find out, not gonna happen. Gosh, every year…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my kids' school, only a couple of people try to get elected for school president (no idea how many students vote, probably not many) and then ... do close to nothing as far as the rest of the student body can see. It's just a title to put on the resume.

A public school President at least at ours is involved in many functions and planning. My daughter is the secretary and says in her role alone it is a few hours a week. Plus 2,000 kids elect them. You are forgetting many colleges seek kids that other kids like. It is a sign the kid is going to fit in which is hard to tell sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What varsity sports?

All of them.

To clarify, have never seen a non recruit with sports as primary ec admitted to a T30. My own kids played volleyball, soccer, lacrosse and track. But friends from the gamut from water polo to golf to field hockey.

Well let me introduce you to my kid. Major varsity sports was his primary. Hours a week all year round. Private Top 10 and Top 20. 3 Top 10 Publics.

If unhooked, this is Miami or USC material.

Nope...just a baller, a leader on and off the court in HS and a really smart kid to boot. Placed in Algebra 1 in 5th grade. Done posting. Believe what you need to.

Stop fantasizing, mom. Soon you will find out, not gonna happen. Gosh, every year…

What private school is offering algebra 1 in 5th grade? Certainly none in the DC area. Name it or it didn’t happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What varsity sports?

All of them.

To clarify, have never seen a non recruit with sports as primary ec admitted to a T30. My own kids played volleyball, soccer, lacrosse and track. But friends from the gamut from water polo to golf to field hockey.

Well let me introduce you to my kid. Major varsity sports was his primary. Hours a week all year round. Private Top 10 and Top 20. 3 Top 10 Publics.

If unhooked, this is Miami or USC material.

Nope...just a baller, a leader on and off the court in HS and a really smart kid to boot. Placed in Algebra 1 in 5th grade. Done posting. Believe what you need to.

Stop fantasizing, mom. Soon you will find out, not gonna happen. Gosh, every year…

What private school is offering algebra 1 in 5th grade? Certainly none in the DC area. Name it or it didn’t happen.

You poor thing

[Anonymous]

Definitely a troll, let’s move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely a troll, let’s move on.

lol. you are unbelievable. You need to believe it is don't you?.. but trust me it's not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my kids' school, only a couple of people try to get elected for school president (no idea how many students vote, probably not many) and then ... do close to nothing as far as the rest of the student body can see. It's just a title to put on the resume.

A public school President at least at ours is involved in many functions and planning. My daughter is the secretary and says in her role alone it is a few hours a week. Plus 2,000 kids elect them. You are forgetting many colleges seek kids that other kids like. It is a sign the kid is going to fit in which is hard to tell sometimes.

Do you realize this verifies how minimal it is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Even you agree being CAPTAIN was irrelevant. Being an unrecruited athlete with a bunch of other excellent stuff, sure, that could help round out a kid.

Well it certainly didn't hurt. Not sure what your point is but you clearly just don't seem to like or value sports but that's neither here nor there since you're not a decision maker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my kids' school, only a couple of people try to get elected for school president (no idea how many students vote, probably not many) and then ... do close to nothing as far as the rest of the student body can see. It's just a title to put on the resume.

A public school President at least at ours is involved in many functions and planning. My daughter is the secretary and says in her role alone it is a few hours a week. Plus 2,000 kids elect them. You are forgetting many colleges seek kids that other kids like. It is a sign the kid is going to fit in which is hard to tell sometimes.

23,000-24,000 HSs in US x pres, vp, treasurer, secretary, etc per class x 4 grades per school = 376,000 kids who have a role like this annually.