Reply to ECs for Top 50

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "ECs for Top 50 "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Do varsity sports matter if your student doesn’t play in college? Some kids just sit on the bench while others carry the team.  The schools have no idea which type of athlete your kid was.

The sports take so much time, with year round travel just to be on varsity.

Is it better to focus on other clubs like Model UN, student newspaper, theater, chorus, orchestra, etc? [/quote]

Sports are great for all sorts of reasons - fitness, friendship, discipline, teamwork. But for non-recruitable athletes - which is 98 percent of all high schoolers - they have to be aware of opportunity cost. Riding the bench on the varsity basketball team isn't going to get them into Northwestern for example. But being Editor-in-Chief of the school paper will definitely help. And a student can't do both. So choose accordingly.

But that's for top 25 kind of schools. Once you have the grades, rigor, and test scores, it's all about the ECs. And students need to be mindful of that if they're shooting for a top school. To use basketball as the example, varsity is a 24/7 yearlong commitment. Practice every day. Weekend games. Off season AAU. There really is no time for anything else. Particularly if they're taking APs and Honors and the kind of classes you absolutely need to even be considered for admission to a good school. For the vast majority of students, it'd be wiser to step down to rec and focus on other interests.

Which is too bad. High school varsity sports is nuts these days. But non-recruitable students really do need to choose how they spend their time if they are aiming for a top school. Some sports - track and XC - are pretty good about maintaining a balance. Some sports - basketball, soccer, crew - are awful. If you're not the next LeBron, it really isn't worth the opportunity cost when it comes to admissions to top schools. Model UN and Debate Club and a part-time job will get them a lot further.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics