Anonymous wrote:Four pages with variations on "don't do it because my kid was a superstar athlete, didn't write about sports, and ended up at a top 10 school". Sorry your single instance examples really don't matter.

Parents on here overthink the essays way too much. If the grades, rigor, test scores, and ECs are all good enough to get into the school then the essay topic really doesn't matter, what matters more is the quality of the writing, can they get their point across?

I agree. BUT, I do not agree for top 20 schools, especially Ivies. The essay and supplemental questions/essays are VERY important for those schools. They are the difference from top students fairly similar academically/ecs. My kid got notes about his essay/responses from several schools at acceptance time. The essays did push him over the top at those 3% RD schools.

For larger schools, many of which don't have many (if any) supplemental responses--the essays just get a cursory review if they even get looked at at all. But, for the Ivy committees debate and meet and scrutinize and vote together and the essay can do a lot to sway the vote.

Anonymous wrote:Being captain of a team is a real accomplishment. I think its a shame that expectations for these kids are so absurd.

Does it matter if you are a captain of a football team or a captain of a bowling "team"? My high school bowling team is very small and most of other teams seem to be very small in my state. Basically if you are a junior or senior, you will be a captain of the team.

Anonymous wrote:Isn't it true college evaluates each Applicant in four categories, one of which is the athletic factor?

Particularly in a school like TJ (I don't have one attending), varsity captain makes an otherwise already strong applicant stand out.

I can't imagine this is not significant.

No. Every school does it differently, and “athletic factor” is not universal.

Anonymous wrote:Do coaches name juniors as captains in order to allow them to use that on their college applications? Seems like the spot would naturally go to seniors but for spring sports it's too late to matter.

My kid is a junior captain, and his coach names kids who he thinks are willing and able to commit to his high expectations, in terms of time and leadership. The coach also likes having continuity between years, so having junior captains makes year-to-year transitions smoother.

Anonymous wrote:I think if you don’t have a real hardship that you overcame, colleges are expecting to see that you helped others. That you shared your privilege in some way.

Can I write an essay about how humble I am?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Four pages with variations on "don't do it because my kid was a superstar athlete, didn't write about sports, and ended up at a top 10 school". Sorry your single instance examples really don't matter.

Parents on here overthink the essays way too much. If the grades, rigor, test scores, and ECs are all good enough to get into the school then the essay topic really doesn't matter, what matters more is the quality of the writing, can they get their point across?

Again, for most schools this is true. OP is asking about T10 and yes the essay matters for those schools.

You can still write a great essay with your sport as the starting point if you build it in a way that really gives insight into who you are. Done well, as sport essay is no less impressive than one about a "unique" topic. It's more about the writer and less about the topic.

Not sure about college admissions, but I'd rather hire the student who captained their baseball team then a student who started a club to save the rain forest in antarctica.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is a captain of a sports team at TJ and want to know how it helps in top 10 college admission. Can one of the essays be written on the work done as a captain?

It is less than 5% of the overall app assessment. 60% or more is rigor and grades compared to classmates. The rest is scores, LOR, evidence of true intellectual curiosity (intellectual activities, essays). ECs and leadership factors count but each one carries only a small weight unless it was hugely impactful : individual EC such as captain hardly moves the needle.

where do you get this or are you making it up?

Doesn’t sound wrong though.

Anonymous wrote:Four pages with variations on "don't do it because my kid was a superstar athlete, didn't write about sports, and ended up at a top 10 school". Sorry your single instance examples really don't matter.

Parents on here overthink the essays way too much. If the grades, rigor, test scores, and ECs are all good enough to get into the school then the essay topic really doesn't matter, what matters more is the quality of the writing, can they get their point across?

Again, for most schools this is true. OP is asking about T10 and yes the essay matters for those schools.

Do coaches name juniors as captains in order to allow them to use that on their college applications? Seems like the spot would naturally go to seniors but for spring sports it's too late to matter.

Four pages with variations on "don't do it because my kid was a superstar athlete, didn't write about sports, and ended up at a top 10 school". Sorry your single instance examples really don't matter.

Parents on here overthink the essays way too much. If the grades, rigor, test scores, and ECs are all good enough to get into the school then the essay topic really doesn't matter, what matters more is the quality of the writing, can they get their point across?

Being captain of a team is a real accomplishment. I think its a shame that expectations for these kids are so absurd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is a captain of a sports team at TJ and want to know how it helps in top 10 college admission. Can one of the essays be written on the work done as a captain?

Yes, and try not to stress. You have a wonderful kid. Try to enjoy the application year and make sure your kid enjoys this year and sees it as a year of validation and celebration, not terror.

Your kid is a test of the colleges’ ability to appreciate your kid. Most colleges need a great student and person like your kid than your kid needs any specific college.

If your kid has trouble getting into the T10s and ends up as a top student at some other fine school outside of the T10, that’s a good outcome, too. Too bad for the schools that were too dumb to take your kid.

There's a lot of research surrounding the notion of being a small fish in a small academic pond vs being a bigger fish in a slightly smaller academic pond. tl:dr you don't want to be at the bottom of the class at any school

Anonymous wrote:Isn't it true college evaluates each Applicant in four categories, one of which is the athletic factor?

Particularly in a school like TJ (I don't have one attending), varsity captain makes an otherwise already strong applicant stand out.

I can't imagine this is not significant.

I don't know this for sure but kid who plays varsity as starter for 4 years and captain 2 years helps break them out of stereotypes so that their high SAT scpre, GPA and success at academic commpetition would otherwise pigeonhole them into. Or perhaps it's just a different pigeonhole, but the pigeonhole isn't nearly as crowded. You can't write about it unless you are using as an allegory to make a deeper point about your observations of the world around you or something like that. But just saying that you were captain of a team helps you check a box

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is a captain of a sports team at TJ and want to know how it helps in top 10 college admission. Can one of the essays be written on the work done as a captain?

It is less than 5% of the overall app assessment. 60% or more is rigor and grades compared to classmates. The rest is scores, LOR, evidence of true intellectual curiosity (intellectual activities, essays). ECs and leadership factors count but each one carries only a small weight unless it was hugely impactful : individual EC such as captain hardly moves the needle.

where do you get this or are you making it up?