Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you're kidding yourself if you think that SLACs give preferential ED admissions to most or all athletes.

Are you kidding? It is the quid pro quo for recruitment. No ED no support is the rule.

NP. You are incorrect.

Anonymous wrote:Generally, interest in SLACs has gone down, especially for boys. Outside of the top 10-15, they are becoming an easier admit. Especially, if you are full pay.

Might want to actually check the numbers before you comment.

Anonymous wrote:OP you're kidding yourself if you think that SLACs give preferential ED admissions to most or all athletes.

Are you kidding? It is the quid pro quo for recruitment. No ED no support is the rule.

Depends on the school.

All I can tell you is the unhooked kids I know at the most selective SLACs all got in ED. The Naviance from our HS bears out that ED seems to be the way kids usually get in.

None of these schools is easy to get into, either way. If you are saying ED isn't a huge advantage for unhooked kids, I wouldn't argue with you, but I can't agree with the "don't apply ED." Even if you're deferred to RD, you have signaled to the school it is your first choice, and that carries some value.

Generally, interest in SLACs has gone down, especially for boys. Outside of the top 10-15, they are becoming an easier admit. Especially, if you are full pay.

OP you're kidding yourself if you think that SLACs give preferential ED admissions to most or all athletes.

My kid and several of his friends got into LACs ED.

It depends on the LAC. For some, you are right, and those tell you outright it doesn't help. But for others, it helps significantly, and you may be told by your CC that your only chance to get in is ED.

It definitely helps at Davidson.

Anyone know if this differs at all at some of the women’s colleges (Bryn Mawr, Smith, MHC)? The ED rates are certainly higher and appear to give a substantial bump, but I’m uncertain about for unhooked applicants like my DD.

Middlebury is the exception among top LACs. There is a real advantage applying ED. Their model is very similar to UChicago.

... also Pomon and CMC have lower athletic numbers. It may help there. I think it does help with CMC from our HS.

The real question is whether the ED acceptance rate for unhooked is the same as RD for unhooked (in which case you wasted your ED) or if it’s still higher enough to merit using ED.

I've done this math myself and think it's true - worse at some schools with higher athletes accounting for 35% or more.

But the it's hard to know how many athletes are recruited or in those ED pools, as you point out. I know kids who started a sport once they got to Bowdoin, etc. Rowing, rugby, even mainstays like golf and tennis. These kids were too busy grinding in HS to join the golf team.

But in any case, I think you're right that ED doesn't help. And the numbers can be misleading.

ED stats are very misleading, especially for LACs. These schools are already small, traditionally accepting 1,000 people out of 15,000 applicants, and a significant amount of that accepted pool are athletes.

Using this site about equity in athletics - https://ope.ed.gov/athletics/#/institution/details -
about 32.6% of (the totally randomly chosen) Swarthmore's class are athletes. Divided by 4, that's about 134 athletes per class. Backing up that claim is Swarthmore's Class of 2027 being 29% student athletes.

In 2023, 216 early decision applicants out of 1,358 were admitted. Without accounting for athletes, that's an acceptance rate of 15.9%. With the estimated number of 134 athletes admitted per class, the ED acceptance rate is 6%. Using the Co2027 rate, it's 7%. Either way, under half of the overall ED acceptance rate and more akin to the 2023 RD round's 6%.

As a disclaimer, I cannot confidently say that every student counted as an athlete applied early decision. However, even with more conservative estimates (80 instead of 134 or 120) the early decision acceptance rate is around 10%.

At LACS, even ones known for their equitable admissions towards FGLI students like Swarthmore, recruited athletics are a huge part of their ED pool.

TLDR: So don't waste your ED on a SLAC (Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Pomona, CMC) unless you are hooked in some way: FGLI, recruited athlete, Questbridge or legacy/donor.