Wow impressive. My son can not match.
My son has 3.85 UW currently, so not likely.
Thatâs a good GPA! Donât count your son out! We submitted GPA and test scores for pre-read. Even though they say âtest optionalâ or even âtest blind,â our experience was that test scores were requested by every school for athletic recruits.
Agree - your child has a strong GPA and if his curriculum is viewed as rigorous - all the better. My daughter was a recruited athlete and will be attending an ivy in the fall - she fell within the 50% range of accepted students and every coach she spoke with had no issue with her grades.
She passed all admission pre-reads in the summer of her senior year and was only asked to notify them if she dropped a class or changed her schedule. She also had a strong ACT score plus rigor in her courses with zero free periods. The only school that made a specific course request was Stanford - as they encouraged her to take Comp Sci 2 (she already had Comp Sci 1).
Agree that getting a test score is a nice bonus and required by some programs too.
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His grades arenât bad at all! Especially with coach support he has a legitimate shot. If he submits ACT they like a minimum of 30 but TO kind of makes it irrelevant.
I actually donât know what kind of GPA is good anymore. All kids, sons and daughters in this CC community are amazing. Many 4.5 W range GPAs. My older son DS21 has 3.95UW, 4.25W, but he gets so many waitlists and rejections. He has many ECs, and is a president of Robotic team. Schools that we thought safeties are no longer safeties. I am not sure if it is because he wants to major in CS. Younger son DS22 is an athlete, and will be in a different path than the older son, but still sounds very tough. Anyway, we will have to go though the pre-reads first before we get an idea.
Thatâs actually probably good enough with coach support if youâre applying ED.
I also think applying Comp Sci and Engineering is a entirely different beast ! My daughter was not looking to major in those subjects and was told by the two large top state school programs she couldnât be a athlete and major in those programs (these schools would have offered her a fair amount of $, so they had major restrictions).
One Ivy told her she could do engineering (again, no interest on her part) and still do her sport, but he would have liked to see a point or two jump in her ACT MATH score before presenting her to admissions since engineering is different. When she laughed and told him no way engineering - he said she was good ! (math was her lowest sub score)
At the end of day, it is hard and can be a nail bitter - in my opinion it is not over until that email from admissions arrives in the inbox 
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You really need to ask the coach(es). Often standards are different for different sports (and different schools). Theyâll give you a pretty good idea where the student will likely fall, from donât see a prob to need to see a GPA of X and/or an ACT or SAT of Y. Not sure how that works in a TO environment, but a strong score (school median or higher) is always going to help.
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We finally travelled to Minnesota to meet coaches at Macalester today. Two track coaches offered the tour and presented their program, facilities, academic support etc. My son was impressed and he was very interested to come here.
One thing bothered him. His season started a month ago, and he completed two meets so far. The bad news is that his time got slower than last year. I am not sure if this was attributed to the hamstring injury he suffered last November. It took three months to heal. Pain is no longer there but he is not the same. I can see that he can not accelerate like before.
We told about this to the coaches. They understood the situation, and they are interested in him based on his freshmanâs time now, and assumed progression if he werenât injured. My son was determined to improved his time, but it pressured him very much. He may be able to relax a little, after hearing coaches saying not to worry too much about the time at this point. However, we will keep them posted on the results of meets.
They were questioning about our willingness to apply for the early decision, because the coaches can influence if it is ED. We said Yes.
We briefly talked about the test. Mecalester is test optional, but I sensed that they wanted to see the score although the pandemic situation may cause the difficulty. In the end, they will evaluate through the pre-read, and we will need to stay in touch to get the guidance.
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Seems like generally positive news. I donât have any experience with or knowledge of Macalester in terms of slots vs tips for track. The fact that they would like to get test scores kind of signals to me that a tip may be in play. They may still use a slot for your son, but having checked all the academic boxes, including high test scores, would be more important in a tip situation. Expect an ED requirement from almost all schools. Make sure though before making an ED decision whether your son is getting a slot (90%+ he will get in) or a tip (in which the probabilities will be driven by the strength of his app with an EC bonus). If it is just a tip, walk in with open eyes and make sure your son has some good safety and match backups.
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I agree with all this. I donât know what terms Macalester uses either, but âslotsâ are the same as âfull supportâ at some schools, and âtipsâ can be called âsoft supportâ. Some schools donât do tips/soft support either. It is critical a recruit understands the definition of terms that the coaches at each school are using. Good luck!
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It depends. At Amherst, Williams etc they have slots where they can accept athletes below the average (primarily in helmet sports but that is the schoolâs choice as to how to allocate them per NESCAC), and tips could refer to those that still get admitted with once they pass pre read and they have qualifications in line with the non athlete admits with full coaches support and basically guaranteed. They use different titles though. Then there is just the coaches recommendation without full support which isnât âguaranteed.â Again, the vocabulary is used differently by different schools and people.
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I might be a bit less sanguine if the kid only got a âtipâ or âsoft supportâ. The kid could still pass the pre-read and not get accepted. There was a long thread about being aware of soft support about another NESCAC, Bowdoin. Prospective Bowdoin Athletes-Beware the "soft support"!
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I agree with others that itâs important to be clear what level of support the coach is providing before you make your final decision. Itâs still fairly early, so I wouldnât worry too much about getting clarity on that right now. One thing Iâd definitely encourage is to continue to reach out to other schools, including less selective schools. It sounds like youâre in CA? Maybe take a look at some of the LACs on the west coast with track programsâRedlands, Oxy, Lewis and Clark, Willamette, Puget Sound, etc. Those might even be easy to visit over the summer or fall. That way if Macalester doesnât work out, your son would have a sense of the other options.
As far as his times so far, I wouldnât stress over that. Perfectly normal not to PR in the first few meets. And recovery from hamstring injuries can take quite awhile. Even after proper rehab, getting back the explosive strength and coordination required for sprinting takes time.
I think may be some confusion here. The difference between tips and slots is not how likely the recruit is to be admitted, but rather the recruitâs academic prowess, i.e., into which band the recruit falls, and how much of a lift he/she needs to be admitted into the school. If an impact level recruit has a 3.2 and 1200 SAT (likely a C band), with coach support he/she could be slotted into a NESCAC. He/she likely could not be tipped into a NESCAC. By contrast, a 4.0, 1500 SAT athlete could get tipped into that same NESCAC school. Thus the tip is not more or less likely to be admitted than the slot. Both depend on positive pre-reads. Soft support, by contrast, is neither a tip nor a slot. It is like being no. 7 on a list of 5 recruits. A soft-support applicant might not even get a preread. It might be more akin to getting an additional application recommendation - but from the schoolâs coach.
I donât think Macalester uses tips and slots in the same way as the NESCAC anyway. Since we are approaching May, and your son seems to love the school, I would have him email the coaches and ask point blank whether they will request an admissions pre-read and if they will support his application if he applies early. If the answer is yes and yes, tell your son to relax and not to reinjure his hamstring. Tell the coaches that he will commit to apply early if they commit to support his application.
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Bowdoin coach was clear with my son on inability to guarantee even with full support post pre read. Amherst and Williams were basically completely certain.
I agree not all NESCACs use tips and slots (nor do they all use those terms). Our experience at Bowdoin was basically a guarantee after positive pre-readâŠso clearly differences even within schools as well.
My understanding was that the NESCAC, at least the top NESCAC though I thought it was a league rule, use Slots, not âtipsâ, with certainly the helmet sports getting the most slots. With the A, B, C band levels still being slots and limiting how many slots at each academic level. Again, probably more applicable for the helmet sports as they get the most slots at the different band levels.
Outside of the slots, my understanding was that the coach does not have any or much pull with Admissions, such as with a tip.
There is inconsistent info with regard to NESCACs on CC. My son got offers at 3 NESCACs and there was no talk of tips or slots. The coaches all said basically "You have a spot on the roster and I will support your application with admissions. " Someone also is very insistent that there are only 2 coach supported spots per team in the NESCACs (besides football). This is absolutely not true in menâs soccer where each school has a recruiting class of 4-7 players (and this incoming class size for soccer is true across all the leagues, not just NESCAC.
I donât doubt others have had different experiences but that just means itâs always important to specify which sport is under discussion.
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