Reply to Do not waste ED on a SLAC. Very few unhooked (non-athlete, non-FGLI, non-legacy/donor) get in.

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Reply to "Do not waste ED on a SLAC. Very few unhooked (non-athlete, non-FGLI, non-legacy/donor) get in."

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]why do you guys think so many SLACs have this same, sports-heavy model. I'm asking - I am genuinely curious.

like for me, it seems crazy that small colleges are prioritizing the 10th best football player that might be interested in them. Or really any member of the sailing or squash team at all. Why is this an institutional priority.

I went to a big basketball school and I can see from a marketing POV, if your team is on ESPN on a Saturday afternoon, okay. It never made sense to me that these players weren't paid (or even given a scholarship I guess at some schools), but with NIL, I think the standouts are getting their pay.

But for every other sport or for Swarthmore football (if there even is such a thing) - who the f cares?

I would think some school - like maybe Swat or Williams, some place with an intellectual vibe -- would just get rid of all of it. Keep men and women soccer if you want. Or whatever is the heritage sport. But dump 90% of it.

I think there are lots of kids who would be drawn to that. All the NARPs who have maybe good reason to be wary of these schools.  Plus these most of these sports are a giant expense for most of these schools. Why wouldn't one school break free?

[/quote]

Yeah I don't get it. My son is active and athletic but doesn't want to go to a small school like Swat or Pomona to cheer on their ootball team - he'd go for the academics and that's what he'd want to see the investments in. The money would be better appreciated by most LAC students going to renovate dorms and improve AC, hire cooler faculty, some funding for the career centers. [/quote]

The schools being discussed are very wealthy, they do not have any budget issues funding athletics. But, they might have future issues if they deprioritize athletics given that athletes at Amherst give at rates almost double that of non athletes and that they out number non athletes 3:1 when it comes to donations above $1 million.[/quote]
This canard has already been debunked upthread. Tell me, what is the ratio of pre-existing wealth of recruited athlete families compared to the rest of the class? There is your answer. The rich kids will still enroll absent athletics. In any event, Reed’s endowment is just fine, thank you very much.[/quote]

Nothing has been debunked, that the PP was merely the findings of an Amherst committee on athletics. Findings which have been found to be true in other studies. The hypothesis that you can align athlete family wealth to giving and that the prime determinant is interesting but irrelevant to the conversation. It is a fact that athletic giving is higher than non-athlete. You state that the rich will come citing Reed as an example, I wouldn't count on that. The wealthy have options that most do not and they will act on their preferences. These students have been practicing athletics for many many years and athletics have been part of the culture of these schools for many many years. It is a symbiotic combination which isn't interested in changing because of your whims.

Reed has a healthy endowment, especially relative to the size of its student body but that endowment is a small fraction of the endowment of most of the schools in this discussion.

Reed has a typical family income significantly lower than the schools that are part of the conversation, their graduates mid-career earnings are among the lowest for elite colleges and the share of students from the top 10% who are attending Reed has been declining since the 90's. Overall I would say that the elite schools are responding to their market incentives much to your dismay.[/quote]

actually that Amherst data is not correct. hold up.

A 2017 study showed the following trends in alumni giving from Amherst graduates [b]from the 1960s: [/b]
Donation rate: A higher percentage of former athletes donated to Amherst College compared to non-athletes ([b]76% vs. 56%[/b]).
Significant donors: Although former athletes made up 48% of the alumni body, they accounted for 78% of donors who gave $1 million or more in cumulative gifts.
Recency: The information is[b] based on older graduating classes and may not represent the giving patterns of recent alumni. [/b]
National trends in alumni giving
Other studies of alumni giving at various institutions confirm that former athletes often exhibit higher rates of donations compared to non-athletes, especially when their team experienced success during their time at the school. 
In a[b] 2017 working paper from Princeton University, researchers found that for male alumni who played a varsity sport, a conference championship win during their senior year was associated with 8% higher annual donations to the athletic program.[/b] 
Factors that influence alumni giving
Besides [b]participation in athletics, research suggests that other factors[/b] influence giving patterns, including:
Alumni satisfaction: Greater satisfaction with a student's overall experience, including academics, correlates with increased giving.
Team performance: For some schools, particularly those with major sports programs, athletic success can boost alumni donations and application rates. [b]However, this is not always a major factor at smaller, liberal arts colleges.[/b]
Solicitation approach:[b] Direct and specific requests for donations, such as for a particular project, can be more successful than general appeals.[/b]
Donor wealth and proximity: An alumnus's net worth and proximity to campus after graduation also correlate with higher donation rates. [/quote]

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