Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all no one is saying athletes are “taking” anyone spot. I haven’t seen this in the thread. Recruited athletes in all but marque sports, have to meet certain academic requirements. Second, athletic commitment is the only guarantee left to get into any college. It’s the one sure way to know before you submit your application - At least at D1s where you sign a NLI.

As for how tough it is once you get there - you do realize that once a kid is accepted and at school he or she can quit and stat at school just without the extra burden of playing a varsity sport. Tons of Ivy athletes -usually white kids in privileged sports like crew and lacrosse -quit after freshman year. Honestly in most college sports, fewer than 50% of recruited athletes stick with the team for 4 years. It’s not as great a kids expect once you get there, more like a job even at some D3s.

All this said, it is a GREAT way to ensure acceptance at a top academic school with low acceptance rates but it’s a long and ardorous road. I don’t recommend it unless your kid has talent and loves the sport.

It’s affirmative action for rich white kids.

Yes for many sports. I wonder if this will start to change. But until then, this is the system that exists. There is nothing wrong with lacrosse or ice hockey or sailing etc. but they are definitely dominated by well off white kids that start of learn them as children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all no one is saying athletes are “taking” anyone spot. I haven’t seen this in the thread. Recruited athletes in all but marque sports, have to meet certain academic requirements. Second, athletic commitment is the only guarantee left to get into any college. It’s the one sure way to know before you submit your application - At least at D1s where you sign a NLI.

As for how tough it is once you get there - you do realize that once a kid is accepted and at school he or she can quit and stat at school just without the extra burden of playing a varsity sport. Tons of Ivy athletes -usually white kids in privileged sports like crew and lacrosse -quit after freshman year. Honestly in most college sports, fewer than 50% of recruited athletes stick with the team for 4 years. It’s not as great a kids expect once you get there, more like a job even at some D3s.

All this said, it is a GREAT way to ensure acceptance at a top academic school with low acceptance rates but it’s a long and ardorous road. I don’t recommend it unless your kid has talent and loves the sport.

It’s affirmative action for rich white kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all no one is saying athletes are “taking” anyone spot. I haven’t seen this in the thread. Recruited athletes in all but marque sports, have to meet certain academic requirements. Second, athletic commitment is the only guarantee left to get into any college. It’s the one sure way to know before you submit your application - At least at D1s where you sign a NLI.

As for how tough it is once you get there - you do realize that once a kid is accepted and at school he or she can quit and stat at school just without the extra burden of playing a varsity sport. Tons of Ivy athletes -usually white kids in privileged sports like crew and lacrosse -quit after freshman year. Honestly in most college sports, fewer than 50% of recruited athletes stick with the team for 4 years. It’s not as great a kids expect once you get there, more like a job even at some D3s.

All this said, it is a GREAT way to ensure acceptance at a top academic school with low acceptance rates but it’s a long and ardorous road. I don’t recommend it unless your kid has talent and loves the sport.

It’s affirmative action for rich white kids

.

Anonymous wrote:My DS is currently a college freshman "recruited" athlete at a D3. He had good grades in high school (A-), but not fantastic grades. He went to a private high school and took a couple of AP classes and a couple of honors classes but several "general ed" classes. He was aggressively pursued by multiple D3 coaches and was being looked at by a handful of D1 coaches. The reason why I mention D1 is because DS is a strong athlete that was wanted by multiple coaches. We had been told that grades are still important and we learned it first hand. Yes, if you are a top football player who is being pursued by the college football powerhouses, you probably just have to graduate from high school. But high academic D3 schools require you to have the grades to get into their school. And depending on the sport and school, some D1 schools also have stringent grade requirements for their athletes.

Two coaches from high academic schools reached out to DS. During the conversation, they asked him what his GPA/SAT scores were and when DS answered, the call quickly ended. He never heard from those coaches again, so they knew, just based on him telling them his GPA/SAT that they would never get him admitted.

He was verbally offered a spot at a very high academic school (top 10 national SLAC.) My DH and I talked to the coach and our first question to him was "Have you seen his grades?" The coach wanted our son and was convinced he would be able to get him into the school. DS sent in a transcript for a pre-read - as we suspected, he got a "no" from admissions so the coach obviously didn't have that much pull.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all no one is saying athletes are “taking” anyone spot. I haven’t seen this in the thread. Recruited athletes in all but marque sports, have to meet certain academic requirements. Second, athletic commitment is the only guarantee left to get into any college. It’s the one sure way to know before you submit your application - At least at D1s where you sign a NLI.

As for how tough it is once you get there - you do realize that once a kid is accepted and at school he or she can quit and stat at school just without the extra burden of playing a varsity sport. Tons of Ivy athletes -usually white kids in privileged sports like crew and lacrosse -quit after freshman year. Honestly in most college sports, fewer than 50% of recruited athletes stick with the team for 4 years. It’s not as great a kids expect once you get there, more like a job even at some D3s.

All this said, it is a GREAT way to ensure acceptance at a top academic school with low acceptance rates but it’s a long and ardorous road. I don’t recommend it unless your kid has talent and loves the sport.

It’s affirmative action for rich white kids

.

Anonymous wrote:First of all no one is saying athletes are “taking” anyone spot. I haven’t seen this in the thread. Recruited athletes in all but marque sports, have to meet certain academic requirements. Second, athletic commitment is the only guarantee left to get into any college. It’s the one sure way to know before you submit your application - At least at D1s where you sign a NLI.

As for how tough it is once you get there - you do realize that once a kid is accepted and at school he or she can quit and stat at school just without the extra burden of playing a varsity sport. Tons of Ivy athletes -usually white kids in privileged sports like crew and lacrosse -quit after freshman year. Honestly in most college sports, fewer than 50% of recruited athletes stick with the team for 4 years. It’s not as great a kids expect once you get there, more like a job even at some D3s.

All this said, it is a GREAT way to ensure acceptance at a top academic school with low acceptance rates but it’s a long and ardorous road. I don’t recommend it unless your kid has talent and loves the sport.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most kids I know playing a sport in division 3 are not at good academic schools. My DS could have played his sport div 3, was recruited by several schools, none of which he’d ever heard of. Being s bright kid, none of that interested him. He is playing his sport in club.

There are some great schools in D3 among others

NESCAC: Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, Tufts
UAA: Chicago, NYU, WashU
Centennial: Swarthmore, JHU

You definitely have to be a great student and a recruitable athlete to get in with a sports hook.

CMU, Middlebury, W&M, Pomona

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t change your race or major donor status, but sports team recruiting seems to be a major hook. Knowing what you know now, would you encourage your child to intensely pursue a sport. You don’t necessarily have to be a superstar for a lot of D3 teams, just a varsity athlete at a big school who plays outside of school at an advanced level. I have a younger kid and I’m definitely not Ivy or bust, I wonder if this is something I should encourage. Even flagship schools have <25% acceptance rates. Wonder what older parents who have gone thru the process think?

Do not do this. You are talking about years and years of practices and tournaments and thousand and thousands of dollars in fees and travel expenses. This is for kids that really like the sport, have some drive and talent and the family has the time and money.

Spend all that on something where the student has an interest and talent. It sports...fine. but maybe it is dance or music or science or something else.

Anonymous wrote:Do you know anything about D3 sports? Some D3 schools are as good as D1…