<p>How much will colleges care about the lack of a varsity letter if an applicant has other good extracurriculars? Be honest. I know that the Ivies want to see well rounded students.</p>
<p>I’m sure they could care less. Unless there is an exactly identical candidate to you…except with a letter.</p>
<p>I had no varsity letters, and I never played competitive sports of any sort, and I got into a wide range of colleges. If you like sports and are good at them, it wouldn’t hurt, but many people do get into good schools without them.</p>
<p>If your entire life revolves around sports, and you’re a one-dimensional candidate, and you’ve been trying to play for the varsity team but can’t manage to make it, then not having a varsity letter is likely to hurt you a lot. Because you can’t put that you played varsity. And if you don’t letter in varsity at all, that means you aren’t playing your senior year (I think most the time you can’t do JV if you’re a senior).
But, not to worry. If you’ve got some other redeeming quality, or even making JV is some major life struggle that oyu managed to accomplish, then maybe your experience will help you write a stellar essay. Then, even from the jaws of defeat you can pull out victory.
And people overemphasize colleges wanting “well-rounded” people anyways. Sure, they like to have some people who do EVERYTHING. But they also like to have people who are extremely good in ONE thing (it’s why they take varsity athletes who seem to be less of a “fit” academically: they put more of their blood sweat and tears into their sport, which cries out for respect). So, depending on your dimensionality (if you’re four-dimensional, you may be so strange that Brown’s math department will want to study you), not lettering in varsity may hurt you or not. But, personally, I didn’t play football my junior or senior years. But I used the time to pursue other things. Don’t stress over it.</p>