I am a rising Junior in a well respected Public high school. I am a member of the IB program and intend on receiving the full IB diploma at graduation. I am a member of MuAlphaTheta and plan on joining almost all of the Honors Societies my school has to offer which means most of my lunches will be spent tutoring fellow students in the respected subjects. I am also a member of science Olympiad and my team and I made it to states last year. I scored a 32 composite on my practice ACT with a 33 STEM score, and I got a 1330 on my PSAT both tests I took without preparing whatsoever so I am quite confident I can improve my scores drastically. I have a 4.0 unweighted average and a 4.429 out of 4.5 weighted, and have received an A in every one of my classes so far which were mostly AP and Honors. In my junior year I am taking 6 IB classes including IB physics II and I may take AP chemistry instead of having a study hall as well. I am very confident academically, however, my extracurricular accomplishments, I believe, fall short. I am planning on getting a job as soon as I can, I have applied to 5 different places and am awaiting a response, however, I regret not participating in a college program over the summer. I am a very good soccer player, my coaches, parents and friends are fully confident that I could play soccer in college, however, I do not enjoy it anymore. It no longer brings me joy and is quite stressful due to the pressure I place on myself, and the pressure others place on me. I am going to play Rugby in the spring, but I would have no sport in the fall. I would prefer not to play soccer in the fall, but my family is worried it will have a negative impact on my admission into top colleges and universities if I do not. My questions are: Do I have to play soccer to get into a top university? Are my current extracurricular activities enough? (and if not, I would appreciate recommendations) Should I attend college programs over my Junior ->Senior summer? Also, I am very passionate about YouTube and, therefore, was wondering if a successful family-friendly (no swearing) Gaming YouTube channel and charity live streams on Twitch would be a good thing to put on my application. I want to pursue a career in Physics or Environmental science.
No. Unless you are getting recruited, playing or not playing sports isn’t a big deal. Having been the varsity captain looks good, but it can easily be replaced with another impressive extracurricular activity. If your extracurriculars reflect other passions (music, technology, medicine, etc.), sports is by no means necessary.
Getting into an Ivy League school is pretty much impossible to predict for strong students unless you are the child of a major donor, URM, or a heavily recruited athlete. However, getting in to an Ivy League school or equivalent is also unnecessary. You have great stats and will get in to very strong universities. You are on track to do well at a very strong university. Whether this will be Ivy League is unknowable but is also not important.
Lots of students go to Ivy League or equivalent universities without any participation in sports. A far larger number go to very strong universities where they will do very well and which are a very good match for the student but which are not Ivy League schools.
I have heard of cases of students getting into a well ranked school based on their exceptional performance in sports, and then immediately dropping the sport. By dropping the sport they lose their athletic scholarships, but at least in the cases that I heard of they did not lose their admission to the school.
I agree with above that unless you are good enough athlete to be recruited, the sport is really just another EC, therefore may not be much help in admissions.
If you’re a male and not playing at the Development Academy level or a female not playing at the National Premier League (NPL) or the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL), then there’s a high probability that soccer won’t affect your application and it’s just another EC. However, if you’re playing at these elite levels, then soccer could help get you into a college. But honestly, as a junior in HS, you should know your recruitment level by now.
The question about impressive EC’s comes up regularly on the forum. There is a thread with several posts by Northstarmom, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs from the point of view of the most selective colleges. The post is at The post is at [“Those ECs are weak…”- So what’s good?]("Those ECs are weak...."- So what's good? - #3 by Northstarmom - Chance Me / Match Me! - College Confidential Forums)
As you will see from that link, at the most selective colleges they are looking for depth more than just participation. Stanford, for example, says