<p>What about sports? By sophomore year its pretty clear I’m not going to do any sports. But I don’t know how much that affects admissions.</p>
<p>@Daniiiiis
Sports are good ECs but it isn’t going to keep you out of any schools if you aren’t in any</p>
<p>Oh good, thanks for the reassurance.</p>
<p>@daniiiiis - Unless you’re really good at a sport (state champion and on the brink of getting recruited), it’s not going to help you that much.</p>
<p>@catchinginfinity I wish! I’m glad to hear that though.</p>
<p>Other than starting a club I have no idea what I can do. </p>
<p>@SwaggyC: do research, yo. </p>
<p>@TeamRocketGrunt
your guide motivated me to but that quickly died down</p>
<p>I should probably at least try to though</p>
<p>@swaggyc: lolol it’s not that hard. Just go out and do it man.</p>
<p>@Cornball: I’ve just found what I love to do. When I started doing my ECs, I wasn’t worried about college at all, so I started my stuff only because I wanted to. I just want to focus on getting better at everything I do now, instead of stretching myself out to do pointless clubs.</p>
<p>I also talked to my friend about doing research, and she’s 100% on board with it. My parents won’t let me drive, but she’ll be able to in July, so I’m happy that we’re planning to do something together. We’re going to see the counselor on Monday. Thanks @TeamRocketGrunt for the awesome sauce guide for pushing me to actually do something haha.</p>
<p>looking at all the threads though, it seems like all admitted HYP students played either a sport/instrument, and I do neither, which is pretty depressing.</p>
<p>@College123college: again, if you’re not really good, they’re not going to care. The only people who’ll have an advantage if they play an instrument are the ones who win international competitions or give concerts and whatnot (Tiffany Poon, for example). If you’re not a national athlete or whatever, sports won’t make much of a difference, either. </p>
<p>And as people here will tell you time and time again, there is no set “formula” for how to get into Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. They’ll most likely reject you whether or not you play an instrument (not trying to be intentionally crass; statistically, most of us are going to get rejected).</p>
<p>@ccprep9: Yes. </p>
<p>I’ve heard that playing an instrument really well or achieving a high level in the arts gives you an edge in getting accepted to Ivy leagues and such. But they also look at how passionate you are about something and if you can stay committed. </p>
<p>@Pandawriter Not necessarily, a handful of people get into Ivy League without any AP/IB in the Arts and without a talent in them. </p>
<p>Yes, they want talent, but only in your desired major and future. Ex. If wanting to major in Chemistry, you would have to at least be a Chemistry Olympiad and AP Chemistry to be competitive and have a chance, or something similar.</p>
<p>I would only suggest a person to do music or sports if they started since freshman year, because 4 years of committing to something is pretty good.</p>
<p>@elefish92: I would argue that intended major doesn’t matter. As long as you’re passionate in a general area, you should be fine. There’s a girl here on CC who’s some dog show champion or something like that, and she stands a pretty good chance of being admitted to some selective places because she’s nationally ranked. If she wants to major in physics, which has nothing to do with dog shows, I doubt she’d be turned down. Also, the fact that you can put “undecided” as well as change your major once you’re in college bolsters my point.</p>
<p>I dunno too much about sports, but for instruments like piano, the only people who have applications where piano makes any significant difference are the ones who’ve been playing since age four or something. Usually, the very musically talented will send in an art portfolio; the less experienced shouldn’t even bother with sending one in, because having a bad portfolio can actually be more harmful than having no portfolio. The only time the instrument will actually make a difference is if you’re good enough to send in a portfolio (and by that I mean you’ve won some national or international piano competitions, you play in concert regularly, etc. Really good example of someone like this is TIffany Poon, whom you can look up on YouTube).</p>
<p>@pandawriter: Again, if your passion is in the arts, that logic applies. If the only reason you’re doing art is because you view it as a ticket to college admissions, the adcoms will see right through it. </p>
<p>Like @elefish92 said though, a 4 year commitment is a definite plus. This includes being on a sports team or an auditioned orchestra, which requires some level of skill. Anyway, how important would you guys place an auditioned orchestra and going on a tour with an orchestra? (Travelling in general with an academic/musical/sport group).</p>
<p>Well I know that most classical musicians (those that play at a high level) and other trained musicians have been playing ever since they were very young. If they continue to pursue this passion throughout high school, it will definitely stand out and show as something they work very hard at. In this sense, I think it can help when applying to colleges. </p>
<p>@elefish92 I also disagree that intended major plays a huge role. There are plenty of arts/music strong applicants with science intended majors. For example, I know of a girl that got accepted to Stanford and majored in neuroscience, but was very involved in music her whole life. She never really did any science olympiads throughout high school, but she took challenging science courses. However, pursuing ECs that line up with your intended major can’t hurt. </p>
<p>I agree with @pandawriter and I’d just like to clarify that you don’t necessarily need to be “Tiffany Poon level”, you just need a passion for whatever instrument you’re playing. Unlike math and lab research, it’s actually really hard for a high school musician to perform a solo concert in a prestigious hall. Tiffany Poon is incredible, but she’s in an entirely different situation - she’s already done solo tours, solo concerts, and she’s going to pursue music when she graduates. Most of us here, however, just compose/perform as more of a hobby and don’t want to become music majors in college (possibly minor for me). I’ve never done solo tours, I’ve never performed a solo concert in Carnegie (heck, I’ve never even performed at Alice Tully EVER - working on getting that crossed off my bucket list), I’m definitely not the best high school flautist, but I’m still going to send in a music supplement because I consider myself a musician and performance is a big part of my identity.</p>
<p>The things that Tiffany has done would certainly get her admitted to any school she applies to, but she’s not applying to the schools we’re looking at. It’s pretty much impossible for an above-average high school musician who’s looking at HYPSM to have performed a solo concert (NOT through a pre-college program like Juilliard’s) by the time he/she graduates. Most people who have are looking at schools like Curtis and Eastman, which are on an entirely different playing field. That being said, as long as you’re passionate (i.e. your parents don’t push you to practice and you can’t imagine dropping your instrument) and you have some degree of talent, it’ll come through to admissions officers. It won’t be the sole thing that’ll get you accepted, but it’s still a part of you that your application wouldn’t be complete without.</p>
<p>I haven’t been on this threat since forever LOLOLOL. So busy wit APs, ECs, classes… </p>
<p>Quick question. Any of y’all going to be in LA for intel? </p>
<p>Also, I don’t think NOT playing an instrument or NOT being super awesome at an instrument hurts one’s application… I only play flute in the local level, but it’s something that I enjoy and have been doing since elementary school. This won’t help my application that much, but it is still something that I enjoy and I feel rounds out my application which is full of STEM/community service-esque stuff… </p>