Feel like I’ve asked this before, but can’t find off search. So..
If you are a varsity athlete, captain, second team all-conference or some other accolade, but you are not recruitable by a highly selective schools (coach won’t put a chit on you), does it do anything for the candidate’s application? Or is it just another EC?
I would say recruitable by any school -not just highly selective because many choose sport over school.
It will depend on the school.
It can be just another EC if you present it like that or it can highlight teamwork, responsibility, leadership and more.
“Just another” is up to you …
Ps it can be great in the job market too if you weave into an interview as it likely won’t make a resume.
Many employers love athletes and the skills acquired/presented.
Lastly, if the school has a club or intramural team, you might find a way to weave it into an essay to show how you might positively impact a campus.
In the end, one has no idea why they get into a school or don’t get into a school so I wouldn’t overthink the premise of your question.
I think that it is another EC. However, it can be a very good EC.
ECs are most important for the highly selective schools. For them, my belief is that you should do whatever is right for you. Whatever you do, you should do it well.
If you were a varsity athlete you pretty much have to have done it relatively well. If you are team captain, or second team all-conference, then you must have done it very well. If you were team captain, then the coach must have thought that you showed the ability to get along with others and to help other students get along with each other. This is a lot of what leadership is about.
ECs are also about learning to be a good person. This might be more important than what university you attend for your bachelor’s degree. There are a LOT of very good universities.
I can think of multiple cases where a student participated in a sport, they were not recruitable (in some but not all cases because that sport did not recruit), but the sport seemed to help them significantly one way or another. University admissions is not the only way that sports has helped some students.
I would say non-recruited athletics are “just” ECs, but ECs are potentially very important.
As I understand it, when holistic review residential colleges consider ECs, their top question is usually whether this applicant is likely to do this activity, or similar, at their college in a meaningful way. This can be part of their admissions mandate, to enroll students to get in the pipelines for all sorts of valued student activities.
Depending on the activity, they may be looking for different things to indicate likelihood of being a meaningful contributor in college. For most activities, sustained dedication of time is likely valuable evidence. But some activities may also require certain demonstrated talent/skill levels to be considered useful, if that is what is required to be a meaningful contributor.
OK, then non-recruited athletes can do a variety of meaningful activities. Like some sports don’t do recruiting, or not at the top level at that college, but are still valued. This can include club sports, again including sports where club is the highest level in general.
OK, so realistically, a lot of people who just participate in HS sports may not actually be good bets for the more competitive club sports in college. Indeed, some club teams have players who might have been recruitable elsewhere, but didn’t want to go to any of those colleges. Others might just want to back down the commitment level. Others might be below recruitable levels, but not much. Others might be great athletes who want to switch sports in college. And so on.
OK, so being very dedicated to, and accomplished in, your HS sport, or sports, may look good as a potential college activity even if you are not recruited at that college. But many other things might serve a similar role.
So this is one potentially valuable type of EC, but only one of many.
At small LACs with lots of sports teams, could sports be favored ECs because those sports teams need a pool of potential walk ons to fill their teams?
The LACs I know much about recruit for their NCAA varsity teams. They may still also plan for some walk ons, but not necessarily in a way much different from universities.
For club sports, though, it might in fact be different sometimes. Like I am not 100% sure how Carleton manages to remain so competitive in Ultimate, but I strongly suspect they do not entirely ignore strong Ultimate credentials in Admissions.
However, wouldn’t a 2,000 student LAC have a smaller pool of potential walk-ons than a 20,000 student university that is fielding a similar set of sports teams? In that case, wouldn’t the LAC have some incentive to prioritize sports ECs in admission to boost pool of potential walk-ons?
In general, if you are not a recruited athlete participation in a sport is considered as an EC. As with other activities, long term dedication and leadership are positive attributes.
I believe that sports matter because a kid who is selected to be captain, and/or, MVP, for 4 years,
with academic strength,
and rigorous coursework,
Part time job/volunteers,
with strong LORs from academic teachers,
tells the admissions committees what kind of student is walking onto their campuses.
The student who multitasks, appears disciplined, participates on campus, will not be a student who will stare at a computer device all day long. This student will join activities and possibly lead campus events.
Possibly! I know some teams have recruited walk ons, which I gather usually means there is no offer of special admissions help, but if admitted you are at least very likely to make their roster. I also know D3 teams often do not have hard roster caps, and that some sorts of teams can have a lot of “true” walk ons being practice squad sort of players, potentially even novices in niche sports. Other teams though are almost all recruited players, it just depends on the sport.
So it may be they consider this informally in admissions despite the lack of formal recruitment.
Only in the same way that any other EC is evaluated. Being a recruited athlete puts one into an entirely different category, where the school wants them because it will strengthen their sports team, and academic qualifications are now in the “good enough” category, as opposed to the heart of the application.
It’s a path that some families in the know exploit from early on, plan for well ahead of time. After all, how many kids have access to sailing, or even crew, to become a recruited athlete for these sports? And yet, it’s a way into the most prestigious schools, if one’s grades and scores are in the “good enough” range.
There is constant chatter among the athletes at my D30’s boarding school about how all the tall athletic girls are being told rowing is a great way to get into Ivies and such.
Which may well be true, and yet a lot don’t do it anyway, because competitive rowing is a real grind! Lots and lots of time on those erg machines. And of course even having such a program is rare.
No real point, other than to confirm some of these niche sports may be particularly effective, and yet remain niche for a variety of reasons.
Rowing practices are also traditionally early morning, which can be a deterrent for many high school and college students.
However, college rowing is also well suited for walk ons by generally athletic people with no prior rowing experience, so there may be less need for colleges to fill their rowing crews with recruited athletes and others with rowing experience (as opposed to having a reasonable pool of generally athletic people among the students).
and in the afternoon too… often 2x a day. On the water/erg vs. weight room.
But to OP questions, I think sports “count” are AOs consider sports as an EC…sure.
They show dedication, commitment and can show some leadership. They are not, however, remotely rare. Every HS has MANY captains (in my area often 3 a team!) and varsity athletes… A lot of parents seem to think it is so exciting their kid a a varsity captain, and while it is great, there are just SO SO many, an AO will read that every single hour (or certainly every afternoon)…
Often, yes, especially at LACs with no athletic scholarships. At those schools, I think there are typically recruited athletes who quite the team after a year or two, because any financial aid they receive is independent of athletics and they decide they want to focus on academics, or they don’t want to risk injury, or whatever (obviously this is not the majority, but it’s a not-insigificant minority). I know of many students who’ve participated in varsity sports at LACs as walk-ons – even in LACs we tend to think of as having highly competitive athletics.
The last bit is kinda where I’m at.
It’s great that you can demonstrate leadership, focus, commitment, maybe some level of accomplishment, etc., but I suspect those characteristics will be demonstrated elsewhere in the folder and given the applicant pool, these are table-stakes qualities.
Feels like it only matters if the kid can demonstrably impact their program to the point where they really want you for that skill.
It’s an EC, but of a known, particular sort. By that I mean that if an applicant credibly claims to have participated in sport X for several years, it’s pretty clear what level of time commitment was required over a particular season (the duration of which is usually known pretty well).
Compared to an EC where students are supplying an estimate of hours spent per week, in activities where that could be embellished a bit, sports are a bit less of a wildcard. In almost all cases, they require commitment to daily practices over a season. This might or might not matter in any particular case.
You didn’t ask this, but I’d say for non recruited athletes, sport participation in high school is probably one of the least efficient ways to get an EC to put on the app. I think it’s very high value for personal development. But I know a lot of kids who weren’t involved in sports but who had fairly compelling ECs that did not require the same volume of hours and also had a lot more flexibility in terms of timing.
Both my kids were varsity captains of their sport (CA) and absolutely used their experiences in both EC and essays. The key is for the student to dive into the impact they had on the team and what they actually did (beyond stats). Did they help lead practices, help recruit new members, communicate with administration, help young, new members adjust and feel comfortable on a new team, etc.? Were they out of their comfort zone? One of my kids could have run at Div. 3, but chose not to in the end. Both were admitted to highly selective schools.
Beyond varsity, any sports participation is impressive to me if a student keeps at it. I’ve seen kids keep showing up day after day who are almost always last in races and that says so much about character, grit, etc. to me.
The College Essay Guy is a great resource to help define how to use experiences like sports. Be sure to accurately include the amount of time needed for the sport. Never assume the AO will know that.