Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:56
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
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.
+1 The time commitment and training and travel all year long that some of these varsity sports like football, basketball and lacrosse take with the student still being able to balance that with high academic achievement is something top schools definitely factor.
Credible source?
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:55
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
Your "strong ECs" don't rate for the Ivy League, OP. They need more than that.
They also need to see well-known national or international awards (or published work at reputable publishers or respected peer-reviewed journals), or well-known, highly selective paid internship(s) (not pay-to-play or nepo); and a coherent narrative in the essays that adds context to those achievements.
They also need to see well-known national or international awards (or published work at reputable publishers or respected peer-reviewed journals), or well-known, highly selective paid internship(s) (not pay-to-play or nepo); and a coherent narrative in the essays that adds context to those achievements.
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:51
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
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.
+1 The time commitment and training and travel all year long that some of these varsity sports like football, basketball and lacrosse take with the student still being able to balance that with high academic achievement is something top schools definitely factor.
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:41
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
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.
ECs are really only like 5% of an application (according to Selingo)….the kid likely was already in just by being top 10 and high SATs…followed by great essays and LORs.
Maybe if you are Chloe Kim your elite, non-NCAA sport performance counts for more.
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:39
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
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.
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:34
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
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.
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:32
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
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.
There are a lot of reasons to play sports without being recruited. A boost in college admissions is generally not one of them.
I know many students who were standouts in their sports at their schools but not recruited or at least chose not to be recruited and picked schools where they wouldn't play their sports. They did very well with admissions.
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:30
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
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.
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:28
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
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.
There are a lot of reasons to play sports without being recruited. A boost in college admissions is generally not one of them.
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:19
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
Anonymous wrote:Strong ECs means:
1. school president
2. first chair in audition orchestra/band
3. elite-level athlete
4. multi-year (3+) community service commitment at the same organization
5. multiple awards won at top tournaments/conferences: speech and debater/Model UNer
6. steady job of any kind (McDonald's and the like=bonus)
Strong ECs does NOT mean:
1. president of many clubs
2. started a non-profit
3. did research with a professor
4. participated in any or all of the "strong ECs" above but not with demonstrated commitment (i.e. many years) and/or significant recognition (i.e. varsity athlete but not top individual stats, on student council but not president)
This list is not comprehensive but there is a great deal of misinformation here about what "strong ECs" means.
HYP interviewer here. I have no special insight into the inner workings of the admissions office, but I do see who gets in and who doesn't. From what I have seen (from the few that got in vs. the dozens who didn't) "strong ECs" would include two classes: 1) being a recruited athlete or 2) truly national recognition, like some of the free math camps or the (probably now defunct) State Department study abroad programs. That's not an exhaustive list, just what I've seen. I have seen multiple kids with your "strong ECs" be denied or wait-listed.
5 and 3 on your list are the only ones that make sense to me.
Also, McDonald's? Wtf are you thinking?
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:05
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
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.
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:03
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
Anonymous wrote:Strong ECs means:
1. school president
2. first chair in audition orchestra/band
3. elite-level athlete
4. multi-year (3+) community service commitment at the same organization
5. multiple awards won at top tournaments/conferences: speech and debater/Model UNer
6. steady job of any kind (McDonald's and the like=bonus)
Strong ECs does NOT mean:
1. president of many clubs
2. started a non-profit
3. did research with a professor
4. participated in any or all of the "strong ECs" above but not with demonstrated commitment (i.e. many years) and/or significant recognition (i.e. varsity athlete but not top individual stats, on student council but not president)
This list is not comprehensive but there is a great deal of misinformation here about what "strong ECs" means.
This is most likely posted by a hiring manager at McDonalds
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:02
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
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.
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:01
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
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.
Ask your kid who got accepted to "a Top 10 and Top 20" to explain to you why correlation is not causation.
I'm guessing this posters kid is/was not captain of a varsity team sport. Just sayin.
Sounds like you're delulu.
Amiright?
Anonymous
05/06/2026 17:01
Subject: A reality check on "strong extracurriculars"
-- first chair in audition orchestra/band
Impressive if NOT a school orchestra/band, only non-adult, plays for $, etc.
Impressive if NOT a school orchestra/band, only non-adult, plays for $, etc.