I looking around on Caltech’s website and among the exclusive things they noted high school students did before getting into Caltech was getting a black belt. A simple black belt along side of people who made automatic optimizing software for solar powered planes or published papers.
So a black belt was significant enough to not only be the highlight of a person’s career, but also be notable enough to make an accepted list noting the important things students that got accepted have done.
I have a blue belt in Taekwondo (an actual World Taekwondo Federation blue belt may I note, not some bs ATA belt). I left Taekwondo and didn’t give it a thought after grade 9 to use my time on more STEMy things, things that I enjoyed more. But now I’m woudering, is it worth mentioning my blue belt? Is it note worthy at all?
I don’t see a college being interested in something you stopped in 9th grade and didn’t see through to completion. It’s totally fine that you stopped to follow your true interests. If you have an extra slot on your common App EC list you can add it since you did participate in one year during high school. I just wouldn’t “save” a spot on your list for it. Those that follow through to black belt get special recognition because they saw something through to the very end when the majority of kids drop out. Colleges do love that (like making Eagle Scout or earning the Gold Award in Girl Scouts.) It shows long-term focus, loyalty and commitment. On top of that, most continue to study martial arts and rise to leadership positions at their studio well after they’ve earned their black belts.
I promise you that Caltech is not admitting kids on the sole basis of a black belt. That kid had amazing grades, test scores and other accomplishments as well.
There were lots of pretty incredible accomplishments on D’s class profile list. D made it for her quantity of professional theatre work. At orientation who did everyone want to meet? The national yo-yo champion lol. Sometimes accomplishments are just “cool” and make you think “that’s a person I’d like to meet.”
Under your circumstances, essentially zero (no involvement for several years).
Not noteworthy. That black belt was not the reason that student was admitted – it’s up there as more of a, look what cool/random stuff some of our students have accomplished.
@turtletime and @mellycx
I’m not saying it was the reason he was admitted; that would be absurd. It’s just that it was “cool” enough that it got mentioned. I honestly view my non-professional epic ping pong abilities greater than my the belt. I never thought it carries any weight at all.
If my understanding is correct, you can only list 5 things on your common app. You technically can list more but colleges don’t like it because it shows that you’re not very much committed. I’m a junior and I was very close to my red before I quite. Do you think it’s worth going for? I might be able to get the red and IIRC anything higher than a red isn’t conventionally given to people under the age of 18.
Currently, I’m planning to list the small local youth online magazine I started, two university summer internships, one of the clubs I started and run, and a not-so-popular varsity sport that might help me get recruited. Would a red belt triumph any of the five extra curricular activities I’m going to list?