<p>During my sophomore year, I started the crew club at my school. We’re not very competitive outside of our school, but I am the Team Captain. I have a bunch of extracurriculars, but I’m trying to narrow them down to fit in the Common App, and I’m wondering if I should include crew only because the rest of my extracurriculars are political/journalism-related (for which I have received state/national recognition). Would it be worth including crew even if I don’t have any recognition with it just to add diversity?</p>
<p>I don’t think it would hurt. I think that while they do like to see a focus on your app, having some diversity in your activities is good too, especially because journalism can be solitary and it’s good to have some displays of leadership.</p>
<p>My app was similar to yours, in that I was a writer and most of my application was focused on that, but I was also a mediocre player on our mediocre Varsity soccer team. I put it on my app because I put a lot of time into it, and I really love and enjoy it. I guess it’s up to you, but I think it would make your application more interesting. Especially if you could note that you started the crew club.</p>
<p>I would definitely put it on because it shows that you are more than just intelligent… that you are “well-rounded” but still passionate in other areas (assuming the rest of your ECs are centered around politics/journalism).</p>
<p>Starting a crew club PLUS multiple politics/journalism ECs with state/national recognition is a great combo! Go for it!</p>
<p>Sports participation has special status because you can’t fake the discipline and hours involved, many colleges (including Yale) still believe in the “mens sana in corpore sano” ideal, even if their own athletic programs don’t exactly reflect it, and team sports teach both cooperation and leadership. They will know that you aren’t on the coach’s recruiting list, but apart from that they won’t know (or care) whether your team is good, OK, mediocre, or terrible.</p>
<p>Starting the club is the actual key here as to why you would definitely want to include it. Many kids participate in many things BUT very few OWN the thing… you liked it enough to START the club…and that is a BIG deal… initiative is a very important skill and you can PROVE you have it… excellent accomplishment… it isn’t actually about “crewing” though I will say it is also not an inexpensive sport to start, I would think… so I suspect there are nuggets here you will be able to use with some of the apps… my recollection is that Yale’s has a few short questions (125 word answers max last year) and you might have some crew experiences that you could feature there also…</p>
<p>good luck…</p>