Being good at sports

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M_also_lonely

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Yesterday, there was a seminar at our college with the motive of making us aware of the admission procedures in elite universities in foreign countries. Somewhere he mentioned that for getting into these colleges, academic expertise is not sufficient. You need to be good in extra curricular activities. He said that being good at sports throughout your school/college life is as important as being good at academics.
The problem is that I am not good at that. I have tried to play a lot of games like cricket, football, hockey, but unlike my colleagues, I suck at all of them. Nor do I have made any achievements ever, even other than sports, yet. Not even in a single field.
So as this means they wont select me, what shall I do now?
Will I have to quit engineering instead of getting a master degree because I am not good at extra curriclars?

I dont even have any achievements in academics. So wont I get any chance to learn from great colleges of the world?

Whats my fault if I didnt know that I will need these achievenments in future?
 
This sounds like a bunch of preppy bullshit to me. Not undermining the value of possible extracurricular activities, but surely these aren't limited to sports. They can extend your social circle and sure they can look nice on a CV cause they show that you pursue interests outside of regular hours, yet connected to the school/college. Mind the "interests". These activities should fit you and if sports aren't your thing, then it wouldn't help - especially if someone inquired why you chose these activities and if you liked them while you try to ignore how horrible they were.

Alternatively you could refer to personal interests you follow which are not linked to school if you want to show what fascinates you. I think it's more of a matter of proving that you have the skills and that you are have talent in a field.

I don't know what kind of elite institutions your lecturer talked about. Surely these kind of universities exist. The kind with a university codex, golden rules to follow and all the pompoeus nonsense which puts immense emphasis on your physical constitution, social etiquette and the team spirit which is necessary for all sports. But if you are a down-to-earth person you might not fit in there anyway. It will certainly not stop you from pursuing the field of engineering at many universities which know what's important: Your ability to think logically.
 
Sports is big in college, but I don't think it should be that important. If someone participates, great. But it shouldn't be a requirement. I'm not a big college person though. I'm not a fan of school in general. Perhaps signing up for something extra wouldn't be so bad. Personally, I probably wouldn't do the sports, but I'd sign up for a music or an art class.
 
I don't think sports are the only thing that counts as extra-curricular (at least, not where I am anyway)

Have you ever tried volunteer work? That's a pretty good one. If someone sees you're active in the community, they may get the idea that you're serious, and I think it's possible to find some groups in the school community that have these.

Also, if sports isn't your thing, there's always other things too. Music, art, stuff like that.

Whatever you chose, I wish you all the best.
 
I don't get it - you're in college but you're worried about not getting into an elite foreign university? What have I missed here? What's wrong with the college you're in?
Apart from that, admissions into elite universities is extremely competitive but in my opinion that doesn't make them superior or better to colleges that aren't considered elite. People want to go there because of the prestige and because it's a status symbol.
They also tend to give preference to admitting students who have had relatives like parents or grandparents that went there and to students who have families that donate $$ to their endowment. If you're not rich or mom and dad didn't go there, that's not very fair, either, isn't it? But such are the ways of the world.
If you're not good at sports, why not find another niche that you like?

-Teresa
 

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