This is absolutely not true. The only thing being on JV would affect is whether or not they were being recruited as an athlete. Participating in a sport, whether JV or Varsity, is a commitment. You can be the Captain or MVP on a JV team and show leadership. Neither has anything to do with academic performance. So, 4 years of JV or 4 years of Varsity = no difference. Hey, I would give a bump for the JV if I were the Adcom. That shows perseverance to stay on a team that does not usually get much glory for that long. Shows commitment which is a very desirable trait.
With regard to JustOneDad’s comment in #77, I think that the amount of admissions “credit” a non-recruited athlete gets for varsity vs. JV participation depends heavily on the particular admissions staff members who are handling the application, and their experiences. I can see the rationale for giving a lot of credit to the JV athlete. On the other hand, I suspect that Stanford strongly prefers varsity athletes–because varsity status shows that the student put a lot of effort into developing his/her athletic skills.
The “credit” for JV status probably also depends on the applicant’s high school. I know that there are mega-high-schools in Texas with 900+ students in the graduating class. If the varsity team sizes have the same numerical limits as in smaller schools, then a JV player in one of the mega-hig- schools might well have been a starter in a moderate-sized school.
Some of the best state schools are phenomenally difficult to get into from out-of-state because state law requires them to strictly limit the number of out-of-staters in each class. UNC-Chapel Hill is a well-known example. So although these schools are great places to consider (and great places to get an education), many of them cannot be safety schools for any out-of-stater.
I don’t have specific knowledge of this, but isn’t the varsity sports time commitment greater than the JV commitment? Perhaps it is not.
This might vary by region of the country as well. The local high school did not even have many JV teams.
I think that in a sport-intensive region of the country, JV might carry more weight than it does around here.
I think that one can spin endlessly about trying to predict what a given adcom might like several years hence (understanding that adcoms are, well, people, and different people spark to individual things; they are not all one-of-a-piece - there probably IS a Stanford adcom who doesn’t really GAS about sports) … Or one can just go ahead and do the things that one enjoys and let the chips fall where they may.
If your child is getting a 4.0 UW and in all honors/AP classes available, and has five ECs though no “super” awards, she is being pushed enough.
Ask her what she wants to do. I recommend that most students be limited to 10 hours of ECs per week, unless they are into sports which take up more time.
If you are really worried, write up her activities and hours per week and per year. That is what the Common Application will want. My son used all 10 slots for activities which included club sports, school clubs, volunteering, and working.
Have to disagree with one element of PG’s post #84. If there is a Stanford adcom who doesn’t care about sports, I will be shocked! But otherwise, I think this advice is excellent–you cannot predict the reactions of the admissions staffers who will have primary responsibility for your son’s/daughter’s applications. Different elements of the application resonate differently with different staff members. So it absolutely makes sense for students to do the things that engage them, and not try to second-guess what will be popular in admissions several years from now.
Sole exception: The oboe is over-used as a hook. 
“She dropped out of about half of what she was doing and began to truly enjoy her day to day school life…”
-Again, it will work for some and will drive others insane. Everybody is absolutely different and have to determine what works for them and what not. Some are happy only if they are busy and others absolutely cannot deal with it, cannot manege time, the activities bocome a burden. Just have to be able to stand on oyr own and it looks to me that OP’s D. is like that, she is standing on her own despite of pressure to do something different. But again, some of them are not as mature, may give in, would they enjoy what they are doing or feel miserable, only experience can tell. And my D. learned it thru experience during college. I kept teeling her that nobody is a super-woman, but she decided to try to be, well, mistakes may be the best teacher after all.
Not so much. Teams are limited to a certain number of varsity participants. Mostly what it shows is the level of competition that student had. Some smaller schools can’t field more than a Varsity team. A given student could very well be Varsity one year and get eclipsed by the addition of a number of stellar Freshman members the next. A simple injury at a critical time could knock someone off Varsity and that certainly has little to do with effort or motivation.
There are lots of reasons not to consider the Varsity athlete as someone who puts more effort into it than JV athletes, and I think adcoms know that.
“but isn’t the varsity sports time commitment greater than the JV commitment?”
Somewhat. It depends more on whether the athletes move to competition past their district level. If they go to state, things can change dramatically because that begins to require overnights, missing school days, etc., etc.
That issue should be addressed by the EC section where students estimate the time they spend in each activity. If you have another 60 hours at the end of the season invested in District and State, your weekly averages might go from 15 to 20 hours, for example.
Sports is about teamwork, committing to the practice demands, performance expectations, and the constant win or lose pressure, how one responds to that. Various activities have their assets. Robotics, eg, is about teamwork, the problem-solving mindset and cooperative spirit. I really doubt that, at the end of an admissions cycle, Stanford is making two finalist piles: varsity vs JV. Or athletics versus non.
Instead, it’s more that the kids who only have solitary pursuits (no matter how much we posters may appreciate those,) or who just do some at-will things, may not be showing how they responded to the demands and expectations that others or a team (of any sort) can place on them. That’s the difference between school orchestra or outside orchestras, eg, versus just playing your violin at a nursing home x times/semester. It’s good to have a balance.
The director for admission at Stanford, Colleen Lim, is very interested in athletics and should have a very good Idea of the effort required by both a varsity and junior varsity athlete.
The following is from Stanford News (2012):
Well, I’m sure Colleen Lim is a lovely person, but it’s an absolutely horrible message to send a kid that he or she must contort himself or herself into the pretzel that Ms. Lim may personally find appealing, because of some stupid, inane belief that Stanford is Heaven on Earth. It’s only a school. That’s all it is.
Interesting: If this link is believable (http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxvi/10.9.98/sports/jvsports.html) Colleen Lim is likely to be very supportive of JV players.
@Pizzagirl wrote:
@Pizzagirl, you are the one suggesting that an applicant contort themselves into a pretzel, not me. It should be obvious by reading her job history that Colleen Lim enjoys athletic but that does not mean she uses athletics as her sole criterion for admitting a student to Stanford. In fact every year Colleen Lim rejects many recruited athletes during the academic pre-read process because their academic credentials are not similar to other students at Stanford. Condoleezza Rice enjoys college athletics but do you think she ever told the dean of admissions at Stanford to only admit athletes while she was the Provost?
The OP wrote:
No pretzel-contorting as far as I can see. It is very common for high school athletes to focus on one sport that they enjoy. In my experience a high school athlete that is allowed to focus on one sport and has a great work ethic will be successful and happy. The parents job is to provide transportation to practice, provide good meals, and make sure homework and studying is done. Even if the OP D does not make varsity, Colleen Lim is well aware of the effort required for junior varsity.
“Somewhat. It depends more on whether the athletes move to competition past their district level. If they go to state, things can change dramatically because that begins to require overnights, missing school days, etc., etc.”
Depending on the sport, at our school JV athletes often miss half a day of school for regular season competitions—and the occasional full day. That kept my older daughter out of sports some years–she could just not afford to regularly miss certain afternoon classes. It’s even worse for varsity.