The NCAA recognizes and organizes slightly over twenty official collegiate sports. Some schools have teams beyond this; while others do not have teams in every possible sport. There are some sports, however, which are not on the list, and which are not recruited for, but which high schoolers and athletes pursue with the same dedication as any of their peers.
From figure skating to polo to any number of Olympic events, there are plenty of sports which you can devote your whole life to, but which don鈥檛 give the same recruiting benefits as being a star football or soccer player. That said, excelling in these sports can still help your applications, you just need to understand how to frame it properly. In this article, we鈥檙e going to look at how colleges evaluate your sports, and how you should navigate the college admissions process in light of them.
College Teams, Clubs, and Recruitment
Only some sports are organized on teams at the college level, while others are simply clubs. The difference is in who oversees and governs them. The NCAA oversees and regulates certain sports, while others have their own governing bodies. Still others don鈥檛 have official college competitions, though athletes may attend a college and train in a club, they only compete in events under separate national or international governance.
Club sports can recruit passively, but cannot impact admissions in the same way school-affiliated teams can. These clubs are also not governed by the NCAA, and so cannot offer scholarships, nor can they bind you to anything. Club sports may be overseen by the athletics department at a school, or by student life; usually they are also part of the athletics department, and have access to the same facilities.
Since clubs cannot recruit, any applicants who have dedicated their lives to these sports, be you ever so good at it, will have those sports weighed like any other impressive activity, rather than like a recruited athlete. In most admissions offices, recruited athletes get a special note in their file. This doesn鈥檛 make them guaranteed to get in, but it does definitely make it easier for them to do so. Without recruitment, your sport is closer to something like debate. Impressive, possibly even enough to move the needle, but not the same kind of difference maker in admissions.
Telling Colleges 吃瓜官网 Your Sport
You aren鈥檛 getting recruited, but your athletic devotion can still have a positive effect on your chances of admission, you just need to find a good way to convey what you鈥檝e done to admissions officers. This can be somewhat difficult, especially for sports that are more niche or less commonly encountered.
Everyone knows what football is, even if you aren鈥檛 much of a fan of sports. You may not know what goes into it exactly, but admissions officers see enough applicants who have dedicated themselves to football to have a reasonable idea of what that looks like, even if the individual students may not be the best at explaining it.
For more niche sports, there are several places to discuss what you do and how you do it; we鈥檒l go through all of them.
The Activities List
The Common App activities list is somewhat limited; 150 characters is generally not enough to explain every detail of a sport. Instead, you can use this to give a general sense of how you spent your time, the level of commitment the sport required, and what that looked like.
Use active verbs, and focus on what you did; training, conditioning, gear maintenance, teaching others; this is often harder for solo sports, since 鈥減racticing鈥� often feels like the only thing you can say without getting lost in detail. This is often the case, but that鈥檚 why other venues exist.
The Honors List
The honors list should be used for any championships you have won in your sport, especially for individual sports. Even if a college itself doesn鈥檛 compete in figure skating or archery, they love to be able to brag about national champions or Olympians who attend their school. You should list your victories here, rather than in the activities section. If you have too many to fit within the five spots, or you also have other non-sport related awards you want to list, you can add other honors to the additional information section.
Your Essays
Extracurriculars are always a fertile ground for college essays, but this is even more the case when you have few extracurriculars you devote all of your time to. Getting to the highest levels in individual sports takes a lot of time and a whole lot of effort, this rarely leaves time for other activities, and many dedicated figure skaters and gymnasts are homeschooled for this reason. If something is that important in your life, then writing your personal statement about it is an obvious choice.
The goal of this essay is not to explain what exactly you鈥檙e doing in your sport (though that can certainly be part of it), but to elaborate on why it matters so much to you. You have chosen to dedicate most of your life to this pursuit: why? Why does it matter so much to you? What allure does it hold? This introduces admissions officers both to who you are, and to a world of athletics they are less familiar with.
An Example Student
A past 吃瓜官网 student, Jasmine, danced competitively. If you don鈥檛 know what exactly that means, then congrats, you鈥檙e operating at the same level as the admissions officers who read Jasmine鈥檚 application, and had to weigh whether or not she was a good fit for their school. (If you do know what that means, then merde for your next show).
Jasmine danced for fifteen to twenty hours a week, more if there was a competition coming up. Not homeschooled, but utterly devoted to her craft. We could not express this clearly in the activities list (though we did outline what she did and how she spent her time), so we turned instead to her personal statement, so that admissions officers could understand why she devoted all her time to this. We;re going to provide that as an example, and then analyze why it works well.
Example Essay
There is a room in my house full of trophies that are supposed to highlight some of the best moments of my childhood. Instead, they represent my years spent as a full-time competition dancer pitted against girls my age for recognition.
When I joined my first competition team at age 9, dance quickly transformed from a creative, exploratory process to a race for perfection. I spent countless hours practicing my splits, firebird leaps, and fouette turns because that鈥檚 what the girls holding the first place trophies did. This competitive mentality gradually infiltrated every aspect of my life. My school’s gym’s dodgeball game seemed as important as the superbowl.
When I was 11, I 鈥渇inally鈥� won my first competition; 鈥淔irst place goes to entry #33, My Immortal.鈥� I beamed as I walked to the edge of the stage, collected my award with a little curtsy, and posed for the cameras. Over the years, the shelves filled up with shiny plaques, medals, and trophies, but rather than making me happy as I once thought they would, they merely made me complacent as a dancer. By eighth grade, I was burnt out. My competitive success came at the sacrifice of passion, hunger for improvement, and my love of the art itself.
After tearing my patellar tendon, I thought I was done for good. I was sick of doing the same tricks over and over again, and the pettiness of the studio鈥檚 social atmosphere had lost its hold over me. Even my mom noticed a change: 鈥淵ou aren鈥檛 happy anymore. You can quit.鈥� As I sat at home with my knee brace on and crutches by my side, I tried to remember why I鈥檇 started dancing in the first place.
In the beginning, I saw dance as a creative outlet and welcome distraction. I danced to forget about school pressures, my parents’ breakup, and any other stressful situations that arose in my life, not to impress people or steal the spotlight. Through movement, I could let myself go and truly feel like myself. This nostalgic reflection gave me the courage to work through my injury in hopes of regaining a healthy relationship with dance again.
Luckily, my favorite choreographer had just started a performance-based company for high-level highschool dancers. With encouragement from my mom, I decided to give dance one more shot, and joined the company. In our very first rehearsal, I immediately noticed the stylistic differences between Martin鈥檚 choreography and the showy routines of my past. Rather than performing a series of disconnected, unmotivated tricks, we were encouraged to concentrate on the intentions and sentiments behind the movement, translating his gestures and phrases into our own bodies, and communicating them with the audience. We also did a lot of lifts and group work, which enabled me to connect more deeply with my fellow dancers. Through this process of learning and relearning, the artistry that had originally brought me to dance slowly resurfaced, and the passion returned to my step.
Dance is once again my escape from the stress and social pressures of everyday life. When I need a break from doing derivations or reading Arthur Miller, I cue my 鈥淢ovin鈥� and Groovin鈥欌�� playlist on Spotify, letting the music take me where it will, allowing my eyes to close and thoughts to vanish. Genuine creative expression has replaced the cold calculation competitions once brought out in me. As I dance in my room of trophies, my free movements mock their motionless metal forms.
Analysis
The essay has been edited slightly to remove identifying information, but still serves as a good example of what one of these looks like. The essay does a number of things well, which help admissions officers to understand what she did, and who she is as a person.
First, the essay sets up what her competition is. It uses technical terminology, and establishes pace and tempo and meaning. It doesn鈥檛 delve deep into the nitty gritty of what she actually does in the day to day; that鈥檚 not important for the emotional journey of the essay. Instead, it helps us understand her mental and emotional state; both why this mattered to her, and how it shaped her.
When you introduce your own sport, you should do enough to give readers context. You don鈥檛 need to describe the details of each day, but they should get a sense of the level of dedication required from you to excel. Most importantly, you need to establish why you do this. Your own emotional arc doesn鈥檛 need to be the same as in the example essay, but you do need to cover why doing this is important to you.
The essay as a whole follows her emotional journey, as competition both brings her to great heights, and begins to leech the joy out of the art she loves. Your own essay does not need to follow this arc, but you should explore what your time spent means to you, and why you spend it as you do.
This essay is something of a refutation of competition, even as it highlights the heights of achievement the student managed in her dance, her room of trophies and awards. Whatever your own essay focuses on, readers should end up understanding why you compete, and what you have learned and gained from your involvement with your sport.
Jasmine was admitted to a number of colleges, including UT Austin and NYU, and decided to attend Fordham.
Continuing Nontraditional Sports in College
It is quite common for athletes to want to continue their sports at some level in college, even if they aren鈥檛 aiming to be on a varsity team. If you dedicated a serious amount of your life to a thing in high school, then it鈥檚 likely (or at least hopefully), something you care a lot about. For many sports, this si easily done, finding club or recreational teams to mess around with something, still getting to enjoy the fun parts without having to take the whole so seriously. More niche sports, however, often struggle with this.
This can, and in some cases should, be something you consider when making your college list. When I was applying, for example, I specifically chose to apply to schools which would allow me to keep dancing, either through minors, or through dedicated and serious recreational clubs.
Not every school will be able to support every discipline, and not all will be represented at the same level. Communities can become self-sustaining, and attract new members by their presence. It is reasonable to look for one of these communities when you are making a decision on where you attend college. Even if you don鈥檛 want to work at the same level anymore, it is completely reasonable to want to continue pursuing your existing passions.
Final Thoughts
The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat; sports are a major part of life for many students, living and growing through the highs and lows of competition and victory. Not every sport is equally well represented however, and we hope you found this article helpful if your own athletic endeavors are something of a puzzle to explain to admissions officers.
Of course, you don鈥檛 have to go through the admissions process alone. 吃瓜官网鈥� mentors are aspects of every phase of admissions, from refining your activities list to crafting the essay which best shows off your strengths. For advice on making your application stand out, or help finding the best college to support your growth, schedule a free consultation today. We鈥檙e always happy to hear from you.
