^ Yes with a developed program, their will be tryouts and cuts for many teams which keeps the talent level high. Less developed programs may be more for those just looking to have fun. At S’ school, the club teams are competitive. (I think 40 kids tried out for baseball and they took 20). Plenty of intramural (same sex or coed) sports for those who seek more recreational activities (they can get pretty competitve too).
We didn’t have a vibrandt club sports platform back int he 80s. Back then, a club team was essentially the school team in a non-sacntioned sport (rugby as an example). Now it’s a real thing designed for the competitve athlete who wasn’t recruited or didn’t want to make that their college focus (at many schools). Great outlet to keep those juices flowing.
Interesting topic & posts. Similar situation to us because our kiddo loves the sports but will probably not play in college or be recruited to a college desired for those sports. Please help me understand something that was posted above - will AO’s for college count the Varsity and JV sports as EC’s? At boarding school it has been difficult to do many EC’s outside of athletics and those brief opportunities arranged by the school. Summer is busy with club team tournaments and competitions in 2 sports.
Yes @Golfgr8 exactly our situation. I have been told “are you crazy? I don’t have time for anything else!” Multiple times. Now in fairness to my kids, they both have pretty high grades at their schools so I get why grades+6 days a week varsity = 0 time for other ec’s. I just hope colleges see it the same way. ?
My kids actually found it easier with the boarding school schedule to engage in sports and other ECs. Just my opinion but I do think it is a good idea for students to be engaged in ECs other than sports. It can be done and certainly would make one more attractive to colleges as an non-recruited applicant.
Thank you for feedback in advance. Agree it’s been much easier to engage in sports at boarding school?! For us parents, too. Do you think 3 (2 varsity) sports, student government position, tour guide, big sister/ brother to first years, and committee service are enough EC’s for school year? In summer, volunteer teaching sport @ special needs camp and also working at Canadian camp ($ yay) teaching wilderness survival skills.
Athletics are very valuable and common ECs. Dedicating oneself to them shows deep passion and commitment. Only so mnay kids can play at the next level. Just because your kid’s passion won’t place them on a collegiate team, doesn’t mean they can’t use the skills in other areas OR tangiably on a club or intramural team. Those club and intramural teams are major components of student life enrichment. If you look at the Student Life tab on most college websites, they dedicate ample space to activities like sports (non- collegiate). They want kids who will bring their passion to those areas to enrich the overall student experience.
As an example, S plays Club Baseball and is on several intramural teams. Uses the fitness center on a regular basis. That’s part of who he is. Most schools will appreciate that as they want active, vibrant kids. Intramurals are a great way to foster camaraderie which spills over to many other areas on campus.
Of course academic and leadership clubs are GREAT to too!
Yes. Sounds like your daughter has activities and interests, including positions of leadership and trust, away from just sports.
Sure, to a degree. But as you said, it is very common. Common means you don’t really stand out. If you can’t play at the collegiate level, high school sports don’t carry a whole lot of weight, IMO. If you are a captain, that shows leadership but most athletes don’t get to be captains. Plenty of high school athletes out there to compete against.
Unless you can play in college, it just shows that you are engaged and have other interests outside of school. Adding debate and economics or robotics club and tour guide or whatever is not going to make a difference unless you sink in considerable time to prepare for competition, attend them (frequently competing with varsity sports timing wise) and winning some awards. IME kids who do this don’t participate in competitive sports, they do yoga, fitness or rock climbing twice a week and spend the rest of the time doing debate, practicing music, working in science experiments or robotics built out.
I disagree. That’s not what I’ve witnessed. Perhaps it was different at my kids’ school but many, many students, including top athletes, were not one dimensional. Nothing wrong with being a very competitive athlete - I know from experience - but adding to that makes one a more interesting person and applicant. I think varsity sports experience, absent being recruitable, is over-represented and won’t carry as much weight as many believe.
This isn’t entirely on point but related – Have you read the piece by Cal Newport about the bias against leadership activities that are fully understood? (He uses sports captains as his actual example.) The idea is this: yes it takes a lot of time and commitment to become a sports captain, but the path is very well understood, so there is an inherent bias against being impressed by it. (Sort of: “anyone could become good at frisbee if they just put in the hours.”) And then he juxtaposed that profile against a kid who worked his way into some sort of council with the UN (if memory serves me), and while it took far less time and commitment to do that, he was widely considered a “more impressive” candidate, simply because people couldn’t really imagine HOW he had done it. Again, somewhat peripheral to the discussion.
I could see that coming into play in college admissions just envisioning an application reader spending hour after hour, day after day, reading an application who will easily encounter plenty of varsity athletes and even team captains. So that student with the less common leadership role could easily stand out in their mind more, a possible implicit bias they are unaware of.
But aren’t MUN, debate, robotics club, community service, tutoring also over represented? Every kid i read about on CC does all of those and more. At some point it seems like total bull to me. At least with a varsity athlete you know they are actually putting in 3 hrs a day/6 days a week.
@Golfgr8 Yes, perfectly fine profile for a BS kid. Very similar to several of my D’s friends, all with competitive admissions. Didn’t your D dance as well?
Yes, athletics count as serious EC’s. Especially if kids play on multiple varsity teams.
As for MUN, robotics clubs, tutoring and service: There are levels within each of these. For example a golden gavel winner at MUN and related is the kid colleges want not just the kid who went one year: robots has varied types of teams and levels up to global winners (there are also underwater robotics teams and many other variations); Tutoring and service can be quite varied from limited all the way to doing amazing things.
The odd thing is, if you read some of the chance me threads, kids often exaggerate their importance or extend their actual participation levels. You can tell this if your kid is in that activity and you are familiar with the levels and then read about what another kid did. It reads like they did something amazing when in fact it is quite a common thing in that activity. College admins are also very likely to know which activities are commonly done and the levels within each activity. An Eagle Scout/or a Girl Scout Gold Award winner, for example is not the same as doing boy/girl scouts for a year once a week, for example. And colleges know this.
Same with sports, kids on Varsity teams might not plan to play in college but they might have lots of awards and achievements in that area. Many kids will be all-scholastic, or MVP, or be asked to join tournaments etc. Those things are all achievements and the pages can run on if the kid is a talented athlete. Some sports things will overlap and some will not. And some sports kids will have fundraisers for community service projects.
Some sports, like track, are easier than others, to pinpoint achievements. But kids will also get the bonus from teacher/guidance recommendations that they were able to do a sport and balance school.
This premise makes sense to me. I believe, because of this potential bias, that it is incumbent upon an athlete applicant to communicate the extent to which their sport has shaped every aspect of their life.
My son and I have talked frequently about formulating an essay that properly explains why the actual benefits of his soccer career have little to do with wins, losses and awards.
And yet there are college prompts which specifically say “don’t talk about sports” and people often council not to write about sports too much. It’s hard when your formative years have, in fact, been shaped by your extreme dedication to a sport.
After so many kids and so many applications. I think it is hard to say exactly what colleges value and don’t in the admissions process. I can say without a doubt that may daughter and many of her friends were varsity athletes and were very involved in many activities on campus. Most were not recruited athletes nor planned to play in college. But all devoted many hours to their sports teams.
If you get a chance to do a mock admissions exercise during college counseling. I highly encourage you to take note of how everything fits together in an application. It was eye opening for us. Basically you break out into small groups and get a chance to read 3 fictional kids complete college application packs. One is supposedly from your BS and the other 2 are not. It shows the value of context through which your kids applications will be viewed. The group must select the candidate who gets admitted. Then all the groups reconvene and pitch their candidate. It’s eye opening to see everyone’s thought process. Next the invited admissions reps from many top colleges- walk you through their thoughts on the candidates- super insightful.
For our kids, the goal was to be involved in sports, arts if so inclined, community service, and an academic club. As an example: our daughter played varsity field hockey (as well as for a local indoor club on Sunday’s and a few tournaments a year , was editor of yearbook senior year (photographer for 3 years) Co head of mock trial (involved for 3 years) tutored middle schoolers once a week for 3 years on campus, co head of a club that volunteered in the child care facility on campus once a week - involved 4 years. Her common app essays did not talk about any of those experiences - rather something simple that showed her personality.