Anonymous wrote: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.

I’m guessing you’re not on the admissions committee at an Ivy, are you?

The world is a different place today, PP.

Anonymous wrote:Likewise, students shouldn’t write about being first chair violin in orchestra.

Make sense?

But they can have an essay that uses their experience with violin to answer a prompt and can mention that they made it to first chair, but it's included as part of their narrative, not as the main idea.

The essay is an opportunity to showcase core values, service to others etc.

Not “I practiced so much I improved to first chair”, got the lead in the school play, or earned captain, in this case.

Perhaps this is mostly because this is ALREADY INCLUDED IN THE EC SECTION.

Why waste words saying it twice?

Likewise, students shouldn’t write about being first chair violin in orchestra.

Make sense?

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.

+100

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.