It would be interesting to see how many of the ED admits at Amherst are athletes.
I agree, it would be a big number, probably close to 50%.
But IMO there’s no way that stat would ever be made public.
But you can get some sense from the stats. I’ve read that 35%+ of the students at Amherst are varsity athletes. That’s appx. 630 students, or 157 students per class. The ED round admits around 165-170 students. So even if only half of the athletes on campus are admitted during the ED round (which is probably a low estimate), they are taking close to 50% of the ED slots.
The selectivity at the Amherst, Williams, Swats etc. and Ivies these days (for non-athletes) is absolutely insane. Top 1%-2% stats are now “average” at these places, and alone aren’t enough to get in.
There may be 150 students per class at Amherst that are on a team, but many of them are non recruits.
As I understand it, the athletics department is strictly limited to 66 students per year that it may give a “tip” (admissions advantage) to. Most of those come in early decision, but not all.
Actually there are very few walk ons. A-band recruits are not counted among tips but they are recruited and are admitted ED. I had child admitted to the top school ED as an athlete and almost every player on the team was recruited. Walking on is not common. The ED class is around 50% athletes making admission in RD for non-hooked students only slightly less competitive than HPYS.
Here is the best article to see through the fog of the admission policies at the NESCAC Schools. The other top LCA’'s have different but similar systems. But as they clearly mention in this article A-band students are given admission preference if they are on the list but do not count against the coach’s allotment of sub par(below the average admitted student) student athletes(Tips). These hooked students also give false hope to non-hooked applicants by lowering the admitted test scores such that the average even at the Williams and Amherst is only around 2150-2200. So many applicants with 2100-2200 falsely believe they have a good chance of admittance when in reality the average stats of non-hooked applicants is similar to HPYS.
"But as they clearly mention in this article A-band students are given admission preference if they are on the list but do not count against the coach’s allotment of sub par(below the average admitted student) student athletes(Tips). "
That’s what I’ve seen to be true.
How many athletes are recruits v. non-recruits on top NESCAC schools is not known (as far as I’ve seen). In my experience and personal knowledge so far, though, it is 100% are recruited.
My guess is overall it’s prob not 100%. But close.
Because at least in the sports I’ve seen, the top NESCAC school athletes are very accomplished athletes who were recruited by many schools during their high school careers, typically in the range of Ivy and low D1. The NESCAC coaches generally have no shortage of interest from this level of athlete, and don’t have a problem filling their team with recruited athletes.
So are there freshman at Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, etc. who just got in on their merits, as a non-recruited student without coach support, who are good enough to play on the football, baseball, basketball, etc. team?
Maybe sometimes. But (and this is just guessing), that’s kind of hard to imagine happening often.
My children were on such teams. Walk ons are uncommon because the level of play is very high and can approach D1 in some sports. Football is the easiest sport to gain admission if you happen to be 6’2" 215-240 lbs and reasonably athletic. No great skill is required but then that combination eliminates most boys.
I’d rather not say as it might give up her identity but as I stated much earlier, I totally agree that’s it’s a large number. Family weekend I felt like half the male student body was on the football team.
I can’t speak for her daughter, but my daughter is at Amherst and is extremely happy there. If you want that classic elite small college with lots of personal attention experience, it’s hard to imagine how you could beat it. Maybe steal the chefs from Bowdoin’s dining hall - they always say Bowdoin has the best food of all the LACs. Of course, if you don’t want a small college, then Brown is a better bet.
As far as difficultly of admissions, they are basically identical. Brown gets a lot more applications from dreamers around the country who don’t have a realistic chance of getting in, but the actual admissions stats of the schools are almost exactly identical. The average SAT score is the same, but the average ACT score is slightly higher at Amherst.
My daughter loves it. From Orientation squads to the Freshmen quad, she has felt really comfortable meeting people. She took 4 courses and was impressed with 3 of the professors. They challenged her, yet they were approachable. She found the 4th professor a bit cocky. He was the youngest and I’m not sure whether he felt he had something to prove or whether that was just his nature, but time will tell I suppose.
Of course, if you don’t want a small college, then Brown is a better bet.