Reply to Advice from Ivy Coach re not listing sports on college application

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Team "this is mediocre advice" at least to the extent it's presented categorically and without exception.

My hookless DS did three varsity sports all four years and was far from a recruited athlete. He did so because they were fun and he liked being part of the team. He also did other ECs of varying importance. I think DS listed his three sport ECs in the #3-#8 range of common app, which he generally ranked in order of importance. He also listed a paid-coaching job he had as a separate EC, even though it overlapped with one of his varsity sports. Granted, it's a sample size of one, but DS got into Dartmouth (the school mentioned in OP's article) RD and other selective colleges.
 
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My friend's daughter who is at Dartmouth did not do any sports. She also got into Duke and Cornell. Your son likes sports and enjoyed it and that probably reflected in his essays. He must have also been a great student. I think the point is there is no need to do a sport if the kid does not want to, just for college applications. It is better to spend time doing other things that the kid is interested in and enjoys. My son spent a lot of time playing chess when he was in high school and it did not really help him particularly in college admissions. However, he seems to be getting a lot of interviews from hedgefunds and tech firms because of his rating on his resume and has been an intern at a couple for the last two summers. Sometimes things work out differently than planned but loving something you do does seem to help. A kid should do what they enjoy doing and not do things only for college admissions.[/quote]
PP here. I agree. Lest anyone be confused, my central advice is for applicants to be authentic. Kids participate in high school sports because they want to, not because they believe it provides an edge in college admissions. But if a kid participated in high school sports and they were important to that kid, it's borderline inauthentic to omit them in favor of spikey/academic ECs, as seemingly recommended by ivycoach.com. [/quote]
Edit: "Kids [u]should[/u] participate in high school sports because they want to, not because they believe it provides an edge in college admissions."[/quote]

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