Varsity Sports as EC

twoinanddone
Thu, 31 May 2018 20:14:44 +0000

Recruited athletes and athletes who are using their participation in high school as an EC are two different things. A non-recruited athlete isn’t being compared to the athlete who put in just as much time, the non-recruited athlete is being compared to the band member, or debater, or lead in the play. How much time, how involved, leadership, development, commitment. An AO probably is pretty good at assessing those things for a non-recruited athlete, but also good at assessing them for the band member and the actor too.

If sports is the only EC and you aren’t using it to be recruited, beef it up. If you play school and club, state that. If you were the captain or state MVP or the newspaper picked you as ‘first team, all county’ be sure to include that. My niece didn’t want to play in college or be recruited, but her application showed she was more than just another member of the team. She was varsity lacrosse 9-12, captain, academic All American (which requires on field and academic stats), coached younger girls in the summer, cheerleader 9-12, and overall was female athlete of the year at her school. She did have other ECs but there was no question that sports took up a lot of her time.

Honestly, if she’d been recruited she probably would have gotten into schools where she was waitlisted. She was a good applicant, but being a recruited athlete might have been the hook she needed at USC and BC. Being recruited and committing to play is a BIG difference from just being a great athlete in high school. Many of her friends and teammates with the same stats and the same playing experience were recruited to BC, Georgetown, ND (can you tell it was a Catholic high school?) and used the hook and got in. My niece didn’t want to use the hook. Certainly didn’t change how many hours she put in during high school or how good she was, it’s just that the schools didn’t weigh that any more than if she’d been on student council (she was) or in the choir (she was). Regular old ECs, including sports, are not hooks.