Independent Schools - Recruit Athletes?

[Anonymous]

Do the high academic independent schools recruit athletes? If so, does anyone know the process? Do they provide financial assistance, or is that need-based only?

[Anonymous]

They say that they don’t, but they do it quietly for very highly talented athletes. These athletes miraculously receive large “financial aid”, when parents are upper middle class.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think they pretend that they don’t.  Sidwell and Maret certainly do, I believe STA/NCS do to a lesser extent. Of course Bullis and the Catholics do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do the high academic independent schools recruit athletes? If so, does anyone know the process? Do they provide financial assistance, or is that need-based only?

What makes this hard for people to understand is that they confuse what they know --- or think they know --- about college athletic recruiting with what occurs in private high schools.

The NCAA has many rules under which college athletic recruiting operate. These rules do not exist in the Washington, DC private school world.

And there are no Athletic scholarships like there are in college sports.

The private school rules are set by the athletic conference the schools are members of. The rules for the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (Gonzaga, DeMatha, etc.) are different from the rules for the Interstate Athletic Conference (Landon, St Albans, etc) or the MAC (Sidwell, GDS, Potomac, etc)

One rule they all seem to have is “No First Contact”. The schools agree they will not contact prospective athletes first. The student of his or her parents must contact the school first. But once that has been done there are very few rules. Schools can contact athletes, invite them to campus for visits and continue to communicate with them and encourage them to apply to the school.

Once the connection has been established, the coaches from the school need to be convinced that the athlete is someone they want to sponsor in the school’s Admissions process. If that is the case, they will then lobby the Admissions Committee to grant admission and to supply the necessary financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the high academic independent schools recruit athletes? If so, does anyone know the process? Do they provide financial assistance, or is that need-based only?

What makes this hard for people to understand is that they confuse what they know --- or think they know --- about college athletic recruiting with what occurs in private high schools.

The NCAA has many rules under which college athletic recruiting operate. These rules do not exist in the Washington, DC private school world.

And there are no Athletic scholarships like there are in college sports.

The private school rules are set by the athletic conference the schools are members of. The rules for the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (Gonzaga, DeMatha, etc.) are different from the rules for the Interstate Athletic Conference (Landon, St Albans, etc) or the MAC (Sidwell, GDS, Potomac, etc)

One rule they all seem to have is “No First Contact”. The schools agree they will not contact prospective athletes first. The student of his or her parents must contact the school first. But once that has been done there are very few rules. Schools can contact athletes, invite them to campus for visits and continue to communicate with them and encourage them to apply to the school.

Once the connection has been established, the coaches from the school need to be convinced that the athlete is someone they want to sponsor in the school’s Admissions process. If that is the case, they will then lobby the Admissions Committee to grant admission and to supply the necessary financial aid.

This helps a lot. A coach from the WCAC actually reached out to me but the schools in the IAC/MAC started following my child’s social media but have never said anything. I’ll reach out to the ones we may be interested in. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

They 100% do.

A few years ago, my son, who was coming from a very good K-8 and was a phenomenal student ( 98/ 100 GPA, 99% SSAT), elected to student government, volunteered, played in orchestra, interviews very well … good ( not great ) athlete was waitlisted at every single Big 5 school.

It was the same 3 or 4 kids in his class that got accepted at every single school they applied to including the Big 5s, and they all had one thing in common: they were all great athletes with D1 college recruitment potential.
Of course they were also good students and good kids overall.

But between a kid with a 98/100 GPA who is a good athlete and one with a 85-90/100 GPA who is a great athlete , selective schools will almost always choose the latter.

Why? Because the great athlete will get recruited at an Ivy or Top 25 school, and then the school can boast that they have X number of kids admitted to those schools and boost their college matriculation statistics.

This is just the reality. None of this is supposed to put elite athletic kids down ( my second child falls is nationally ranked in their sport and falls in that category ). It takes a ridiculously amount of discipline and hard work from athletic kids to reach elite status and high schools recognize and reward that.

[Anonymous]

Above - where did your chid end up? Catholic? Public? Son with same stats in the same boat although shy and did not interview as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Above - where did your chid end up? Catholic? Public? Son with same stats in the same boat although shy and did not interview as well.

He went Catholic and thriving.

[Anonymous]

Nope. All these local schools that have national class basketball teams got these guys by random chance.

[Anonymous]

PP above posted this:

"Why? Because the great athlete will get recruited at an Ivy or Top 25 school, and then the school can boast that they have X number of kids admitted to those schools and boost their college matriculation statistics."

I'm sure the schools aren't unaware of this. Ivy Admissions are sort of the coin of the realm at some of these institutions.

But it certainly isn't the major reason that these schools try and have competitive or even championship level athletic teams. It's more because of the positive impact that these teams and athletic success has on the whole school and the experience of students, parents, alumni and staff.

It's the same thing with selective colleges. Our sons were recruited by some Ivies and NESCAC schools. The energy and aggressive nature of these recruiting efforts was surprising. I can remember thinking, "These schools have everything. Why do they also need the best athletes too?"

There appear to be a number of posters on here who believe the only thing these private schools ought to be concerned about is academic rigor and college placement. Oh, yes and kindness and inclusion maybe based on their own experience growing up.

[Anonymous]

High academic colleges also need their athletes to be able to hack it. So the selective schools absolutely look at kids in high academic high schools because they know they tic that box.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High academic colleges also need their athletes to be able to hack it. So the selective schools absolutely look at kids in high academic high schools because they know they tic that box.

Depends on what you mean by “hack it”.

The Ivy League Academic Index —- the tool they and other schools use —- allows for more than a few quite average students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the high academic independent schools recruit athletes? If so, does anyone know the process? Do they provide financial assistance, or is that need-based only?

What makes this hard for people to understand is that they confuse what they know --- or think they know --- about college athletic recruiting with what occurs in private high schools.

The NCAA has many rules under which college athletic recruiting operate. These rules do not exist in the Washington, DC private school world.

And there are no Athletic scholarships like there are in college sports.

The private school rules are set by the athletic conference the schools are members of. The rules for the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (Gonzaga, DeMatha, etc.) are different from the rules for the Interstate Athletic Conference (Landon, St Albans, etc) or the MAC (Sidwell, GDS, Potomac, etc)

One rule they all seem to have is “No First Contact”. The schools agree they will not contact prospective athletes first. The student of his or her parents must contact the school first. But once that has been done there are very few rules. Schools can contact athletes, invite them to campus for visits and continue to communicate with them and encourage them to apply to the school.

Once the connection has been established, the coaches from the school need to be convinced that the athlete is someone they want to sponsor in the school’s Admissions process. If that is the case, they will then lobby the Admissions Committee to grant admission and to supply the necessary financial aid.

This helps a lot. A coach from the WCAC actually reached out to me but the schools in the IAC/MAC started following my child’s social media but have never said anything. I’ll reach out to the ones we may be interested in. Thank you!

The WCAC does give athletic money this is directly from their code of ethics.

https://www.wcacsports.com/information/code-of-ethics

“Recruiting, Admissions and Student Life:
Assuring that athletic recruitment practices respect the child, involve the parent, are consistent with Catholic values and WCAC regulations, and comply with established institutional policies and procedures applicable to the admission process;
Committing to awarding financial aid, tuition assistance or scholarships to student-athletes on the same basis as all other students”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the high academic independent schools recruit athletes? If so, does anyone know the process? Do they provide financial assistance, or is that need-based only?

What makes this hard for people to understand is that they confuse what they know --- or think they know --- about college athletic recruiting with what occurs in private high schools.

The NCAA has many rules under which college athletic recruiting operate. These rules do not exist in the Washington, DC private school world.

And there are no Athletic scholarships like there are in college sports.

The private school rules are set by the athletic conference the schools are members of. The rules for the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (Gonzaga, DeMatha, etc.) are different from the rules for the Interstate Athletic Conference (Landon, St Albans, etc) or the MAC (Sidwell, GDS, Potomac, etc)

One rule they all seem to have is “No First Contact”. The schools agree they will not contact prospective athletes first. The student of his or her parents must contact the school first. But once that has been done there are very few rules. Schools can contact athletes, invite them to campus for visits and continue to communicate with them and encourage them to apply to the school.

Once the connection has been established, the coaches from the school need to be convinced that the athlete is someone they want to sponsor in the school’s Admissions process. If that is the case, they will then lobby the Admissions Committee to grant admission and to supply the necessary financial aid.

This helps a lot. A coach from the WCAC actually reached out to me but the schools in the IAC/MAC started following my child’s social media but have never said anything. I’ll reach out to the ones we may be interested in. Thank you!

The WCAC does give athletic money this is directly from their code of ethics.

https://www.wcacsports.com/information/code-of-ethics

“Recruiting, Admissions and Student Life:
Assuring that athletic recruitment practices respect the child, involve the parent, are consistent with Catholic values and WCAC regulations, and comply with established institutional policies and procedures applicable to the admission process;
Committing to awarding financial aid, tuition assistance or scholarships to student-athletes on the same basis as all other students”

"Committing to awarding financial aid, tuition assistance or scholarships to student-athletes on the same basis as all other students”

This actually says the opposite of what you said it does.

Athletes don't get special treatment. They are treated the same as other students.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell definitely recruits for tennis.