How do sports (as an extracurricular, not recruiting) affect admissions?Answered
I swim (hence my username) and by current calculation I am swimming 19 hours and 15 minutes a week, excluding swim meets on weekends, and additional time from swim meets and practices during high school season. This makes extracurriculars difficult because of managing practices every day (except Sunday, and doubles twice a week) on top of schoolwork and making sure I don't miss practice. My goal would be to swim in college, but regardless of my athletic status, would this be considered a high-level extracurricular because I have devoted so much time and so many years to it? I am top 50 in my state, about 1000 for my class.
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2 answers
Hi @Scholar_Swimmer
Swimming is considered a great EC and if you can get recruited to swim, even better. I swam and played water polo and know these are really hard sports. They take a lot of time. Meets are often far away. And recovery time sometimes isn't ideal.
Since nearly 3 hours a day are spent on this single activity, I would ask you to monitor how much joy and fulfillment it gives you. At any point, if you feel your academics or other ECs are suffering because of swimming I would seriously cut back and pursue it more recreationally or just for Club teams.
The other thing I would consider for you is that if it stops being fun and having all that pressure put on you, try water polo. It's still swimming but completely different since it's a team effort in the pool.
I would put swimming in the same sports category as skiing, running, XCountry, road bike racing, single scull rowing, race walking, and any other individualized sport. All these look good on a college application. Even better if you are the team captain and win some state meets or national titles.
Good luck.
I think what college administrators want to see is what build your personality and character outside school. I play badminton and I spend about the same time as you every week (but I did not do as well). Regardless, as long as you show your passion and really demonstrate how this activity shape you as a person (maybe somewhere in one of your supplement essay, if applicable. Or just describe it in the common app activity list) I think you'll be good to go
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Thank you so much! I absolutely love swimming and it would be a dream to swim in college! I have considered polo, but I am reluctant to do both sports at once, and I refuse to give up swimming (plus there aren't really any non-school teams near me, and our school doesn't have a pool). My high school and club team have won some titles too. Thanks again!