Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My unhooked kid got in ED at Swarthmore. Not an athlete, but solid grades and a compelling essay. Was clear on wanting to go to Swat, applied ED and got in.

ED where you really want to go. You should have no regrets if you get in.

This is my DD's plan for Swat this year - she's got the grades, scores, and extracurriculars for Swat, and she's legacy (I loved every minute of it) - it's the right school for her and there's no reason why she shouldn't try.

LEGACY is a HOOK!

Roughly 20% of all athletes are recruited.

https://www.ivycoach.com/the-ivy-coach-blog/college-athletes/ivy-league-athletic-recruiting-and-attrition/

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Anonymous wrote:This website is worth checking out. It is data reported (not useless anecdata). It shows total varsity athlete numbers per college and splits for male and female. It is a combined number for all 4 years but freshman year is always the highest due to recruited athletes. There is drop off in senior and junior year so freshmen account for the highest amount of that number.

VERY FEW varsity athletes are walk-ons for SLACs.

https://ope.ed.gov/athletics/#/institution/details

Not all athletes at a college are recruited.

My DD is being recruited for track. The coach of the LACs she's been talking to say very few (almost none) walk-on. So I'd assume that the vast majority are recruited.

Exactly. Hey DCUM - can you share your personal experience of your DC successfully walking-on to a varsity team at Williams, Swat, Amherst, Pomona, Bowdoin, CMC, Wesleyan, etc. in the past 5 years?

Do you have any real-life examples to share of this happening?

Crickets.

I do. Japanese student and a DC private school kid who both joined soccer at Pomona. The team has 7 walk ons in total. This isn't completely improbable.

ok we have one example.

Yes. You asked for one and received one. What a ridiculous argument.

It is ridiculous to believe that this one example, even if we believe it is true, is at all representative of athletics at SLACs.

No one said it was representative of athletics. You asked for a damn example and are now throwing a fit because you were wrong. Get over it.

It wasn’t me asking for the example, so I have nothing to get over. I do know that Pomona soccer does not have open tryouts, though, so the cited example is extremely fishy. Whatever happened it wasn’t a “walk on” in the commonly accepted sense of the term.

Huh? Go check the roster- Kasai walked on to the team- he’s from Japan and did not miraculously get recruited across the ocean by Pomona to play. You are not as knowledgeable as you think you are.

Yes he is on the roster, but that does not mean he just showed up at the first practice and was put on the roster with no prior interaction with the coach. Teams absolutely do recruit from overseas, idiot.

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Anonymous wrote:This website is worth checking out. It is data reported (not useless anecdata). It shows total varsity athlete numbers per college and splits for male and female. It is a combined number for all 4 years but freshman year is always the highest due to recruited athletes. There is drop off in senior and junior year so freshmen account for the highest amount of that number.

VERY FEW varsity athletes are walk-ons for SLACs.

https://ope.ed.gov/athletics/#/institution/details

Not all athletes at a college are recruited.

My DD is being recruited for track. The coach of the LACs she's been talking to say very few (almost none) walk-on. So I'd assume that the vast majority are recruited.

Exactly. Hey DCUM - can you share your personal experience of your DC successfully walking-on to a varsity team at Williams, Swat, Amherst, Pomona, Bowdoin, CMC, Wesleyan, etc. in the past 5 years?

Do you have any real-life examples to share of this happening?

Crickets.

I know a Bowdoin kid who this year walked onto women’s rugby. I wouldn’t be shocked if there are many many girls who had never played rugby before arriving onto campus

That’s a club sport. Entirely different conversation.

Yep and most people haven't had previous exposure to rugby so they are used to training newbies. Club rugby is very different from varsity soccer or softball.

club or not, it's included in the athetlic numbers. so if you want to back out the number of athletes at these schools, back out the club sports that are administered by the athletic department. like women's rugby at Bowdoin

At DC’s magnet, the only kid admitted to Amherst (out of 14 who applied) was the ED applicant. Very high stats kid, but pretty sure some of the others were too.

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Anonymous wrote:This is such BS. ED is the only way to increase odds for top SLAC admissions. OP is either trying to deter others from applying or a complete ignoramus. I’m guessing the former.

I think OP is saying it's only a problem at SLACs (WASP + runners-up like Bowdoin, Wellesley, Carleton, CMC). It's fine for somewhat less selective LACs like Oberlin, Smith, St. Olaf, Macalester, Skidmore, Juniata, Lafayette, Dickinson, etc.

I know what the OP is saying and the OP is spewing nonsense. ED is the silver bullet for admission to TOP SLACs. This is particularly true for non-athletes.

It really isn’t if you dig into the numbers.

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Anonymous wrote:This website is worth checking out. It is data reported (not useless anecdata). It shows total varsity athlete numbers per college and splits for male and female. It is a combined number for all 4 years but freshman year is always the highest due to recruited athletes. There is drop off in senior and junior year so freshmen account for the highest amount of that number.

VERY FEW varsity athletes are walk-ons for SLACs.

https://ope.ed.gov/athletics/#/institution/details

Not all athletes at a college are recruited.

My DD is being recruited for track. The coach of the LACs she's been talking to say very few (almost none) walk-on. So I'd assume that the vast majority are recruited.

Exactly. Hey DCUM - can you share your personal experience of your DC successfully walking-on to a varsity team at Williams, Swat, Amherst, Pomona, Bowdoin, CMC, Wesleyan, etc. in the past 5 years?

Do you have any real-life examples to share of this happening?

Crickets.

I know of two in the last 4 years on a NESCAC volleyball team. Different schools, Williams and Midd so it does happen. I know that it is rare. I believe that the larger teams might have a couple sprinkled in but you can figure roughly 150-170 of the ED kids each year at a NESCAC are recruited athletes.

I know of 2 walk ons at Williams for swimming. 1 Diving & 1 swimming at Bowdoin, 1 football Pomona.

Bog teams, not reflective of recruiting. Lots of extra kids on the swim team, football team, etc. Costs nothing for a kid to swim or run with a team but they often don’t travel or actually participate in events. Same for practice football players. Those people are not part of this discussion. NESCAC for example has rules….two fully supported players for each sport plus 14 more for football. They then get an equal number of “tips” which are basically guaranteed admissions for recruits above the academic median. This means roughly 150-170 recruits per year in ED. Can actually go a bit higher in “tips” if the AO agrees so it can be more and sometimes club sports can get “tips” as well.

My unhooked DC, with perfect stats and “mid” (his word) ECs, was admitted to Amherst ED. It’s possible his arts supplement helped, but we’re not certain. The music director did contact him when he arrived and he has high seating in first, which he didn’t expect so soon. So maybe. He’s a very good musician but plays a common instrument, is not a prodigy or anything.

Anonymous wrote:I agree not to waste ED as an unhooked candidate for the most selective SLACs: Williams, Amherst, Swat, Bowdoin, Wellesley, Pomona, CMC, Carleton.

But it can be really effective for the next tier below the more selective LACs for the unhooked. Some good places to use ED if it's a top choice are: Wesleyan, Vassar, Smith, Midd, Grinnell, Skid, Macalester, Colby, Bates, Colgate, Trinity, Oxy, etc.

Carleton has one of the highest acceptance rates of the schools you mention.

Anonymous wrote:My unhooked kid got in ED at Swarthmore. Not an athlete, but solid grades and a compelling essay. Was clear on wanting to go to Swat, applied ED and got in.

ED where you really want to go. You should have no regrets if you get in.

This is my DD's plan for Swat this year - she's got the grades, scores, and extracurriculars for Swat, and she's legacy (I loved every minute of it) - it's the right school for her and there's no reason why she shouldn't try.

My unhooked kid got in ED at Swarthmore. Not an athlete, but solid grades and a compelling essay. Was clear on wanting to go to Swat, applied ED and got in.

ED where you really want to go. You should have no regrets if you get in.

We know two recent unhooked kids in ED, great but not quite the level that gets in Ivy RD or even ED other than cornell which is easier ED than WAS or other ivies ED

An unhooked male student at DC's school was accepted ED to Swarthmore last year.

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Anonymous wrote:My kid’s 1st choice is Swat. Are you suggesting it will be harder for her to get in ED than RD? Esp since they have ED2.

She is 1st in her class at end of jr year at v competitive private that typically sends 1-2 kids to Swat. Highest rigor. She has leadership etc and 1530 (800 v). No national anything.

She wants to be done with this process. Is it really a bad idea for her to apply ED?

No — the folks advising against ED have an agenda. Seek guidance from your daughter’s college advisor or the school itself. The bulk of the information shared on this thread is patently false.

what agenda? we're all just parents trying to crowd share info and make sense of a system that's very confusing and opaque. I appreciate the website with data on athletes that OP shared. and there's other kinds of hooks to consider during ED rounds too.

I think it's fine to take a swing at ED for small LAC if it's your absolute fave, but odds are definitely lower than we think when accounting for all the athletes and other hooks that get prioritized in that round and inflate the accepted numbers up.

There's no mystery with ED.

If the school is your absolute first choice and you have the academic stats and can afford the school ( run the NPC!), apply.

If you get accepted, great. If not, there's ED2 or RD.

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Anonymous wrote:This website is worth checking out. It is data reported (not useless anecdata). It shows total varsity athlete numbers per college and splits for male and female. It is a combined number for all 4 years but freshman year is always the highest due to recruited athletes. There is drop off in senior and junior year so freshmen account for the highest amount of that number.

VERY FEW varsity athletes are walk-ons for SLACs.

https://ope.ed.gov/athletics/#/institution/details

Not all athletes at a college are recruited.

My DD is being recruited for track. The coach of the LACs she's been talking to say very few (almost none) walk-on. So I'd assume that the vast majority are recruited.

Exactly. Hey DCUM - can you share your personal experience of your DC successfully walking-on to a varsity team at Williams, Swat, Amherst, Pomona, Bowdoin, CMC, Wesleyan, etc. in the past 5 years?

Do you have any real-life examples to share of this happening?

Crickets.

I do. Japanese student and a DC private school kid who both joined soccer at Pomona. The team has 7 walk ons in total. This isn't completely improbable.

ok we have one example.

Yes. You asked for one and received one. What a ridiculous argument.

It is ridiculous to believe that this one example, even if we believe it is true, is at all representative of athletics at SLACs.

No one said it was representative of athletics. You asked for a damn example and are now throwing a fit because you were wrong. Get over it.

It wasn’t me asking for the example, so I have nothing to get over. I do know that Pomona soccer does not have open tryouts, though, so the cited example is extremely fishy. Whatever happened it wasn’t a “walk on” in the commonly accepted sense of the term.

Huh? Go check the roster- Kasai walked on to the team- he’s from Japan and did not miraculously get recruited across the ocean by Pomona to play. You are not as knowledgeable as you think you are.