A reality check on "strong 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.

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.

Except we are a big sports family…club, varsity, summer, etc. since kids were little. And if you don’t recruit, it means little.

It doesn’t mean sports means little; it means in college apps, it means little.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Except we are a big sports family…club, varsity, summer, etc. since kids were little. And if you don’t recruit, it means little.

It doesn’t mean sports means little; it means in college apps, it means little.

Ok. I can see with my own eyes how many athletes are doing. Maybe it's regional.

[Anonymous]

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

+1. This is true. Any EC can be impactful.

OPs list is a bit basic, at least for the T5 schools.

The student body president at our school does not attend T10 schools, at least not in the last 5-6 years. The Ivy admits this year were not in student government and almost none were in a varsity sport. We have athletic recruits to Cornell, Chicago, Vanderbilt, etc.

[Anonymous]

My college counselor who I pay a lot of money to said that my kid started a radiology club at high school and is now guaranteed admission to every school in the country. It is the best EC, because it is STEM related (Stanford pre-med, hello?) and they have multiple leadership positions: founder, president, vice-president and treasurer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Except we are a big sports family…club, varsity, summer, etc. since kids were little. And if you don’t recruit, it means little.

It doesn’t mean sports means little; it means in college apps, it means little.

Ok. I can see with my own eyes how many athletes are doing. Maybe it's regional.

You don’t make sense. What?

My athlete is heading to an ivy. He was also on SGA all 4 years. He isn’t going to an ivy bc of his sport or sga.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Except we are a big sports family…club, varsity, summer, etc. since kids were little. And if you don’t recruit, it means little.

It doesn’t mean sports means little; it means in college apps, it means little.

Ok. I can see with my own eyes how many athletes are doing. Maybe it's regional.

You don’t make sense. What?

My athlete is heading to an ivy. He was also on SGA all 4 years. He isn’t going to an ivy bc of his sport or sga.

How do you know "why" he is going. Did they tell you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Except we are a big sports family…club, varsity, summer, etc. since kids were little. And if you don’t recruit, it means little.

It doesn’t mean sports means little; it means in college apps, it means little.

Ok. I can see with my own eyes how many athletes are doing. Maybe it's regional.

You don’t make sense. What?

My athlete is heading to an ivy. He was also on SGA all 4 years. He isn’t going to an ivy bc of his sport or sga.

It was definitely the summer at McDonald's. I'm glad you cracked the code!

[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.

Only if you are being recruited, which all the Sidwell bball captains are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Except we are a big sports family…club, varsity, summer, etc. since kids were little. And if you don’t recruit, it means little.

It doesn’t mean sports means little; it means in college apps, it means little.

Ok. I can see with my own eyes how many athletes are doing. Maybe it's regional.

You don’t make sense. What?

My athlete is heading to an ivy. He was also on SGA all 4 years. He isn’t going to an ivy bc of his sport or sga.

How do you know "why" he is going. Did they tell you?

Bc he had amazing ECs, large nationwide awards, and significant and impactful ECs that fixed problems and helped a lot of people.

No one looks at kids like this and says you don’t know why they got in.

[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.

So what do you attribute their admission to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My college counselor who I pay a lot of money to said that my kid started a radiology club at high school and is now guaranteed admission to every school in the country. It is the best EC, because it is STEM related (Stanford pre-med, hello?) and they have multiple leadership positions: founder, president, vice-president and treasurer.

You should seek reimbursement.

[Anonymous]

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.

What if kid is not an athletic recruit, but is captain of varsity team and has consistent volunteer history with younger teams (ie, volunteering with little league)?

[Anonymous]

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.

What if kid is not an athletic recruit, but is captain of varsity team and has consistent volunteer history with younger teams (ie, volunteering with little league)?

There’s no one thing that gets a kid into a college. Your kid being captain and volunteer is just one part of his story. So they can be accepted or rejected and you wouldn’t be able to say for sure if it was this or that got him in or rejected.

[Anonymous]

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.

What if kid is not an athletic recruit, but is captain of varsity team and has consistent volunteer history with younger teams (ie, volunteering with little league)?

Think about it this way...at the very selective schools there are perhaps 10 remaining applicants in any class where they have decided they are accepting 5 of those 10 and they are all super close to each other. At this point, maybe, the fact the kid was the captain of a varsity team gives them an additional 0.1 points compared to the others. Of course, perhaps because another kid took on a leadership role in a volunteer organization, they get an extra 0.2 points.

So 99.5% of the decision was based on everything else. At the margins, maybe this puts someone over the top.

[Anonymous]

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.

I think it depends. Captain as a senior, maybe not that remarkable. But say someone was on Varsity team all 4 yrs and Captain of the team 3 of those year- that does speak highly of their character and how they are perceived by others. Maybe it isn’t winning Regeneron talent search, but colleges don’t want to fill every spot with an academic robot (just some of them).