Anonymous
Post 04/22/2026 07:35     Subject: Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
We have the same dilemma. My DS is a year-round soccer player and on the bubble of recruitable or not. Probably closer to not recruitable. You don't want to bet it all on black, have very few non-sport ECs and then not get recruited. I would get more creative with summer activities and possibly independent study/research to show more range if you are concerned he may want top college options outside of recruitment. It is hard when they spend 20+ hours a week on their sport.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2026 06:52     Subject: Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
Also if he’s recruited the coaches ask about grades right away. How many AP’s etc. My daughter had favorable prereads at the schools she was recruited at. They usually won’t take the time to do the pre read process if the kid is not likely to gain admittance. We were told you should at least be in the 25th percentile of admitted students in the common data set for the school.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2026 06:47     Subject: Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
My daughter is graduating and was recruited by several d3 and some d1 schools, the d1 schools were the bottom schools in the least competitive conferences. She only had her sport and volunteer hours. She decided to go to the school which was the best fit outside of her sport. She wasn’t offered a spot there but is in contact with the coach still. There are now strict roster limits on d1 sports, walk ons are no longer a thing.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2026 21:43     Subject: Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Feedback we're getting...coaches can give a rats behind about anything other than SAT, GPA and classes taken. This for the tippy tippy top Div 1 and D3 colleges.

The trick is being good enough in the sport to be recruited.


A relative has had recruiting calls with a couple of ivies. They didn’t bring up EC at all. They said the SAT that was needed which was much much lower than anyone has mentioned.


Yes, so many here are utterly clueless how recruiting works (and the Ivy AI for that matter).
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2026 21:28     Subject: Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
Anonymous wrote:Feedback we're getting...coaches can give a rats behind about anything other than SAT, GPA and classes taken. This for the tippy tippy top Div 1 and D3 colleges.

The trick is being good enough in the sport to be recruited.


A relative has had recruiting calls with a couple of ivies. They didn’t bring up EC at all. They said the SAT that was needed which was much much lower than anyone has mentioned.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2026 20:24     Subject: Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The short answer is that schools won't give him extra credit for the amount of time the sport takes. It will count as one extracurricular. If he's recruited, that won't be an issue. If he isn't, it will weaken his application to have only one extracurricular.

My kid is a three sport varsity athlete, and has been captain of two. He also played two of the sports at the club level until mid way through high school. He counted all three sports as one entry at the very bottom of his "Activities" list.


This


This isn't actually correct. The students puts down the number of hours for a reason. Some schools do note, but length of committment is more important that hours per year.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2026 19:01     Subject: Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
Feedback we're getting...coaches can give a rats behind about anything other than SAT, GPA and classes taken. This for the tippy tippy top Div 1 and D3 colleges.

The trick is being good enough in the sport to be recruited.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2026 18:30     Subject: Re:Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
Anonymous wrote:Unless a recruited athlete, no one cares.



Wrong it made a difference for my kid
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2026 18:17     Subject: Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
In your own post you list 3 ECs so I’m not sure why you say he only has one. He played sport, was a camp counselor and will have an internship.

If he’s recruited then it’s fine. If he’s not, you got the best advice to find the best school that’s a good fit and not worry about making him into something he’s not. We did that and my son found the perfect school for him. They didn’t care one bit about the things most on DCUM worry about.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2026 18:08     Subject: Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This was my D too, and a lot of her friends. She didn't plan to play her sport (soccer) in college despite playing at the highest travel club level, varsity captain, etc. but she deeply loved it and the community that went along with it in high school so we encouraged her to continue with it despite the huge time commitment. Had 4.0 and 1530+ test score. She started thinking about college junior year and was excited about some T20 options. She got feedback that she should try to reflect and "try out" some EC's adjacent to areas of academic interest not just for college apps, but also to see what she liked. She joined a few clubs in different areas, looked into a couple of volunteer options related to possible interests, and ended up loving one particular volunteer gig the then snowballed into a lot of leadership and related opportunities for her during junior year and into early senior year. And, the experience with team-building and leadership that she had from captaining her sport over time served her well in this new domain. She needed nudge to try a few things out and help finding options that worked with her sports schedule. And she was very happy with her college outcome - ended up ED'ing to a top 10 LAC but she looked well-positioned for other colleges she liked too.


Well this forum is full of very knowledgeable soccer people - what do you define as "highest club level". I think that might be part of the problem.


Top ECNL team - most teammates were D1 recruits
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2026 18:05     Subject: Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
Is your son a tennis player? If not at least a 3 or 4 star recruit, you will have slim pickings with all the foreign players in the U.S. My daughter who played tennis was in a similar situation. She was recruited by a few top SLACs but did not want to go to a SLAC. The last 2 years of high school she cut back on tennis and only played high school varsity tennis. She joined some clubs in high school and did lots of community service. She started to create a narrative with her ECs and ended up in a T-15 school. So, if he has a couple years left in HS there is still enough time to do the ECs and create a strong narrative.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2026 17:30     Subject: Re:Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Unless a recruited athlete, no one cares.



And OP said her kid hopes to be recruited, dolt.


Hope and being a D1 recruited athlete are very different things. Typically, a D1 athlete will know by 10/11th grade whether they are recruitable in the major sports - football, basketball, baseball. Also track. Sometimes soccer and lacrosse. For hockey, you shouldn't be anywhere near DC when you are 16.

D3 is different. Someone that might be recruitable at Williams or Bowdoin isn't even on the radar at the Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, USC, Michigan level. Much less a ton of other schools in the Big Ten and SEC. It's a different world at the D1 level. It really is the best in the world kind of athletes at many of the D1 schools.

Anonymous
Post 04/21/2026 17:06     Subject: Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
Anonymous wrote:The short answer is that schools won't give him extra credit for the amount of time the sport takes. It will count as one extracurricular. If he's recruited, that won't be an issue. If he isn't, it will weaken his application to have only one extracurricular.

My kid is a three sport varsity athlete, and has been captain of two. He also played two of the sports at the club level until mid way through high school. He counted all three sports as one entry at the very bottom of his "Activities" list.


This
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2026 17:00     Subject: Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
Anonymous wrote:This was my D too, and a lot of her friends. She didn't plan to play her sport (soccer) in college despite playing at the highest travel club level, varsity captain, etc. but she deeply loved it and the community that went along with it in high school so we encouraged her to continue with it despite the huge time commitment. Had 4.0 and 1530+ test score. She started thinking about college junior year and was excited about some T20 options. She got feedback that she should try to reflect and "try out" some EC's adjacent to areas of academic interest not just for college apps, but also to see what she liked. She joined a few clubs in different areas, looked into a couple of volunteer options related to possible interests, and ended up loving one particular volunteer gig the then snowballed into a lot of leadership and related opportunities for her during junior year and into early senior year. And, the experience with team-building and leadership that she had from captaining her sport over time served her well in this new domain. She needed nudge to try a few things out and help finding options that worked with her sports schedule. And she was very happy with her college outcome - ended up ED'ing to a top 10 LAC but she looked well-positioned for other colleges she liked too.


Well this forum is full of very knowledgeable soccer people - what do you define as "highest club level". I think that might be part of the problem.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2026 16:57     Subject: Time consuming sport as only extra-curricular?
This was my D too, and a lot of her friends. She didn't plan to play her sport (soccer) in college despite playing at the highest travel club level, varsity captain, etc. but she deeply loved it and the community that went along with it in high school so we encouraged her to continue with it despite the huge time commitment. Had 4.0 and 1530+ test score. She started thinking about college junior year and was excited about some T20 options. She got feedback that she should try to reflect and "try out" some EC's adjacent to areas of academic interest not just for college apps, but also to see what she liked. She joined a few clubs in different areas, looked into a couple of volunteer options related to possible interests, and ended up loving one particular volunteer gig the then snowballed into a lot of leadership and related opportunities for her during junior year and into early senior year. And, the experience with team-building and leadership that she had from captaining her sport over time served her well in this new domain. She needed nudge to try a few things out and help finding options that worked with her sports schedule. And she was very happy with her college outcome - ended up ED'ing to a top 10 LAC but she looked well-positioned for other colleges she liked too.