all valedictorians play sports?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>is this true? I looked back at the past few vals (or at least top 10) in my school, and most of them had participated in sports. i m not very athletic, but i m gonna give field hockey a try my junior yr. would it be a waste to try to start a sport now? i dont know how i m gonna manage 7 IB/AP classes, all the extra IB stuff, CAS, 3-4 clubs, and a possible part-time job. i m already drowning in summer assignments (i have 7 books so far and i still need to see a few more teachers)</p>

<p>Plus, my goal for next year is to get all A’s (and be ranked 1) and i got SAT stuff so…</p>

2

<p>Nope. not in my school. We had 3 valedictorians this year. only 1 played a sport (basketball)</p>

3

<p>Yes it would be a waste because you’re only doing for the sake of admissions. And you don’t think you can handle it. </p>

<p>I’m pretty sure you can manage without sports.</p>

4

<p>Our local HS neither the Val nor the Sal played a sport. Nor did the Val last year - or the one 3 years ago when my son graduated. </p>

<p>Don’t pick up a sport your junior year unless it is something you actually want to do. Unless you are really good it is not any sort of hook plus starting it so late will make the colleges think you are doing it to pad your resume. And some sports can make it hard to keep up with a heavy course load - my S played HS tennis because he liked it - he preferred to stay in JV because the varsity missed about 14-18 full days in a trimester (12 weeks) and he did not want to have to make that up.</p>

5

<p>My graduating class had a huge problem with that our val wasn’t an athlete. Oy.</p>

<p>The past two years they haven’t been, but in the two years before that, they were both three-season athletes I think.</p>

6

<p>You can have all different kinds of vals. Some are just really focused on school, others play sports, many are musically talented as well. I think if the decision of who is val is based on pure numbers and GPA, it’ll be a non-athlete, but if it is more holistic and a subjective decision, it’ll more often be an athlete.</p>

7

<p>well, this year’s val at my school was an EXCELLENT athlete. She owned like 3 varsity sports, I think. Last year was more of a drama freak.</p>

8

<p>Yeah, this year’s valedictorian was very athletic (field hockey, lacrosse, and some other sport). But, last year, the valedictorian was very bookish- he was a stereotypical nerd =) The year before, the val was a band geek.</p>

9

<p>The valedictorian business in my S’s school was a joke. My S took 6 academic solids each yr of HS, took 10 AP exams, (5s on all 5 up to Jr Yr, Sr yr still awaiting result), scored 2350, next kid got 2360, he is the only National Merit Scholar, the only one to be on the high honor roll every trimester of HS and he did not make it because the val and sal had a slightly higher GPA but the val did not even take calculus nor did the sal take a foreign language beyond 3 yrs, my S had 2 languages for total of 9 yrs.</p>

<p>I thought val meant the kid who attained the highest academic distinction, got a rude surprise because the GPA is unweighted, if weighted my S’s would have been in stratosphere. The val got into a college ranked 23, Georgetown, the Sal into Vanderbilt and my S got into 5 Ivies, the only one to get more than one Ivy acceptance. Today was his Commencement when the val and sal made their speeches and I was amused by the silliness of it.</p>

10

<p>That’s probably just a coincidence at your school. If val/sal is based solely on numbers, then it’s probably more likely that the person won’t be an athlete because sports take up so much time (of course, I’m not saying athletes can’t be good scholars or anything). In the past three years at my school (including this year), none of the vals played any sports as far as I know. One might’ve done track, but I’m not sure.</p>

<p>If you don’t think you can handle field hockey along with your 7 IB/AP classes, then don’t try out for field hockey unless you really like the sport. It just sounds like you’re doing it to have a chance at being val, which shouldn’t be your priority anyway.</p>

<p>At least, if you want to make being val your goal, then you should find out how val/sal is determined at your school first, since it varies from school to school.</p>

11

<p>Our last two vals have been heavily involved in drama.</p>

12

<p>Last years val played varsity soccer
This years val played varsity tennis and was a recruited athlete</p>

<p>The girl at my school that got into Columbia and Stanford ran track and played varsity tennis.</p>

<p>The girl that got into Stanford and Berkeley (out of state) also played varsity tennis and ran track.</p>

13

<p>I will be valedictorian and i don’t play sports for my school. Although i do play rec. ball and stuff.</p>

14

<p>our val was captain of xc. however there were 3 captains and there were all picked based on how much the coach liked them so i don’t look at it as impressive. she also ran track, but there are people who tell me that colleges don’t consider track a sport. i don’t know why. she’s going to cornell.
our sal is heading to harvard and she never did any sports. she was however, president of nearly every club that mattered in our school.</p>

15

<p>The valedictorian for the Class of 07 at my school didn’t play a sport that I know of. I think she was involved with our school’s weekly television program though. I know many of the top ten students are generally involved with sports, but this year it’s mostly been the arts (music, theater, etc.).</p>

16

<p>I’m the valedictorian in my school, and I don’t play a sport. Nor does this year’s, the year before’s, etc. I do find that the valedictorians in my school are involved in SOMETHING. The past few years, we’ve all been involved with drama. But don’t get too obsessed with the class rank. It really doesn’t help that much.</p>