Hi, I’m in 10th grade and I am wondering how much impact playing a sport has in college admissions. I’ve heard people say that simply participating in a sport has little impact on your application, and it is only helpful if you are a top athlete or captain. I know that you shouldn’t do an activity solely for college apps, but would sports be helpful at all?
Some info about me:
9th grade: AP CSP, AP Precalc, AP Chinese (self-study)
10th grade (current): AP Calc BC, APUSH
Hoping to pursue data science/econ/finance in college
My extracurriculars are largely focused on community involvement, and I spend much of my summer volunteering with two non-profit organizations as a camp counselor/coach. Throughout the school year, I participate in competition-based clubs (such as HOSA), my school’s orchestra, Tri-M Music Honor Society, and coach an academic club at my local elementary school. I also worked as a cashier earlier in the school year.
I do believe that playing sports is helpful for one’s mental and physical wellbeing, but would it be a waste of time if I am already busy with my current workload? I know students who can manage AP classes, meaningful extracurriculars, and sports, so please let me know if joining a sport will be beneficial or not. Thanks!
Unless you are a recruited athlete, playing a sport will have the same (no more, no less) impact as participation in any other EC.
My advice: Do the things you enjoy in your school and/or community and work to make a positive impact. FWIW a part-time job is also considered to be a strong EC.
It’s treated the same as any other EC, unless you are a recruited athlete. However, with sports, you can often show commitment and leadership, which are good things to show. But of course you can show those same qualities with many other kinds of ECs, and it seems like you are already on the right track for that.
If you want to play a sport, play a sport. If you’re already stretched too thin and aren’t really interested in sports, then don’t. You’re right that they can be very beneficial mentally and physically - in general, regular exercise is indeed very important. Get your exercise in a way that is enjoyable to you - whether that’s a sport or just jogging or yoga or hitting the gym or whatever. Not for your college apps, but for YOU.
Four of my five played 3 season varsity sports all 4 years, 3 were captains, I don’t think sports are different from most typical EC’s. They played sports since kindergarten because they liked them. My oldest hung up her cleats in 3rd grade, she focused on theater/choir, starting in 3rd grade. By HS most students have been playing for a while. If your curious if you would enjoy being on a team, I suggest xc/track, at least at our school it’s no cut (though not everyone is chosen to compete) and the kids tend to be very kind and supportive.
I feel like this is the sort of question that answers itself. If playing a sport was going to be good for your mental and physical well being, it obviously is not a waste of time. I note I think “mental” is potentially covering a lot of ground here. People who do team sports may benefit socially, it may provide stress relief, it may help develop really good time management skills, it may involve important life lessons that contribute to your ethical development, and so on.
All that can spill over into more success in other areas of life, including ones that may show up on college applications. Not least grades, but also potentially recommendations, essays, and so on.
However, if you are asking whether you NEED organized sports for all that, then definitely not. There are plenty of other ways of getting all those benefits, and it is not necessary for it to be all in one activity, but instead could be through various combinations of activities.
OK, so you should take all aspects of your development seriously, including intellectual, physical, social, emotional, ethical, and so on. You should intentionally do things that will help you develop in all those ways. Doing that will in turn help you be better prepared for college success, and that will almost surely be apparent in your college applications as well (and in the end, colleges want kids they believe will thrive at their college).
And organized sports can be a big part of that for some kids. And it can be none of that for other kids. And somewhere in between for yet other kids. All of those are fine choices, as long as the big picture is solid.
Frisbee really is great. Very good for all around fitness and coordination, and then the culture could not be better.
And that continues in college. Lots of colleges have travel teams where you get to represent your college, including quite a few no-cut teams (sometimes as “B” teams). But also still a lot of fun and generally positive experiences.
No input on sports, but please make sure you are meeting all
academic requirements including foreign language - I am not sure how AP Chinese self study is viewed vs taking 3-4 years of a foreign language in a classroom.
Agreed – colleges look for success in the classroom over multiple academic years, not the ability to cram for an exam. This will be particularly true if the OP is a heritage speaker of Chinese.
Please note that more selective schools will recommend or require 3-4 years of the same language. Keep that in mind when you meet with counselors to plan your junior/senior year schedules if any schools you are researching recommend 4 years.
As others said, keep enjoying the ECs that are meaningful to you. Showing commitment through consistency and responsibility through leadership can be achieved in any EC.
For most colleges what you are doing already is more than enough. Do a sport if you’re doing it for the camaraderie of being on a team or your own wellbeing, not because it adds something to your app.
If you’re thinking of applying to ultra-selective colleges then keep in mind they look for more than just participation. For example Stanford says
Students often assume our primary concern is the number of activities in which a student participates. In fact, an exceptional depth of experience in one or two activities may demonstrate your passion more than minimal participation in five or six clubs.
So if that’s the selectivity of colleges you’re considering then you might want to evaluate how your ECs before apps are due in senior year meets that.
^ that’s similar to what we were told by Georgetown in their info session a few years back (they also said they look askance at students who suddenly start a bunch of ECs in junior year as it’s clearly just to make their college apps look good)
And yes, sports can demonstrate teamwork etc that colleges like, but so can other ECs. For my D19, the main one was mock trial - and she had no sports in high school, and not a lot but just a couple of deeply committed ECs. Still got into a T30.
I’m a high school teacher. From my observation as well as experience of my own children, long term (>3 years) orchestra participation gives the students highly similar benefits as team sports - joy, growth, dealing with setbacks, teamwork, collaboration, time management, services, leadership, etc.
I edited my post.