Hey @anonymous72 -

Speaking from experience, I can say that it’s equally important. Universities won’t put less weight on sport. These institutions want to see all-rounded applicants, those who have demonstrated skill and leadership across a plethora of diverse areas: academic extracurriculars (Debate, MUN, Olympiads), cultural extracurriculars (music, theatre, art), and sport.

Having a broad range of involvements is important. However, it’s important to note that extracurriculars are only useful in your application if i) you’re performing at a high level; or ii) have showed a level of commitment to x extracurricular, where it then becomes impactful to your application.

If I was to take your above question and put in the context of United Kingdom’s application process, then I’d say absolutely, sport would be significantly less impactful. They care about subject-specific knowledge and skill. So if you’re applying for a degree in History, they want to see extracurriculars that align with that subject. The UK in general puts less emphasis on extracurriculars.