<p>I’m on Varsity Tennis, but what does it really say about me?</p>
<p>I want to open this question up to all of CC – In my biased opinion, I don’t see sports as valuable extra currics past the fact that they take up a lot of time. Some of the least intelligent people at my school are on the same sports teams as some of the most intelligent…I don’t see it as indicative of intelligence or well-roundedness. </p>
<p>I really don’t want to offend anyone on here - I myself am on Varsity Tennis. </p>
<p>College isn’t just about intelligence, it’s also about commitment and hard work. Sports shows that you’re willing to devote consistent time to get good at something, and in some cases that you’re a disciplined team player. Sports also involves communication and leadership. Those traits are all important for college.</p>
<p>Right, but while commitment and hard work might be qualities of an athlete, they are still nevertheless independant qualities. </p>
<p>Commitment and hard work could be attributes of an athelete and someone who has engaged in various endeavors that testify to his/her articulation, conversational skills, and intellectual curiosity – all of which directly and clearly would contribute to the intellectual atmosphere on campus. Then, doesn’t the dedication and hard work associated with sports become inferior to this type of dedication and hard work?</p>
<p>Not necessarily: they’re not mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>What you’re saying suggests that you can’t be both a dedicated athlete and a dedicated intellectual–which isn’t true on Columbia’s campus (well yeah, sports suck for the most part, but that doesn’t mean our football team isn’t out on the field at 6AM everyday during the season).</p>
<p>Your being on varsity tennis says that you’re committed to a team of players in what is actually a very individualistic game: you’re all bringing somehting to the table: you bring your backhand, Andy R brings his serve. And you evolve by improving your game, or realising that you don’t like it. You’re also getting along with a diverse group of people (right?)</p>
<p>Depends if you’re actually good and have a long history of commitment and success. If you’ve been playing tennis since you’re 10 and practice 3 hours a day and travel around to tournaments on the weekends, it says a lot about your character and commitment and devotion.</p>
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<p>This is a gross exaggeration. Tennis is an individual sport, and high school tennis is an individual sport where the winning team simply has more individual winners. Aside from the fact that doubles players are on a team (actually, the doubles team is a single unit), there’s very little teamwork in high school tennis. You go out and win your matches, and that’s all you can do to help your team win; if other people suck it up, your team loses and there’s nothing you can do.</p>
<p>very true C02…I mean, my sports are not at all the focus of my application so it’s all good that tennis really isn’t the greatest sport to show character qualities.</p>