MIT, Chicago, and Tufts while urban, aren’t LACs though. Definitely could add them to the list if they appeal.
In addition to having excellent academics, Haverford has a renowned and beloved track/cross country coach, Tom Donnelly. He is reason alone for your son to consider Haverford. Tom Donnelly’s great runners return to Haverford College for reunion | Mike Jensen
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We are in Ohio. As this was our first experience with the admissions process the coach told us about prereads, both academic as well as financial aid. Extremely helpful navigating the system and kept us updated on what would happen next. My D was also looking for a high academic and urban setting and our visit confirmed it. She was so sure about Mac that it was the only application she did!
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The highly selective schools are long shots for most regular applicants, for sure. But it’s a very different situation for athletic recruits. At most of those schools, coaches have the ability to support a limited number of their recruits through the admission process. For those supported recruits, a school that would be a reach if they were applying as a regular applicant becomes a safety for a recruited athlete. So I wouldn’t eliminate any of the Claremont schools; if your son is an athletic fit and the coach is willing to support his application, HMC might be more of a sure thing than, say, UCLA.
Apologies if you were aware of this, the Claremont comment made me think it was worth emphasizing.
Also, FYI Claremont splits track/athletics into two separate teams: one for Claremont, Mudd, Scripps and another for Pomona, Pitzer.
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I will 2nd the thought about the Claremont’s - they love their athletes - ie: strong at sport and equally high academics = better odds acceptance. We know several athletes across sports there and all were very strong at their sport and high test, rigor, academic kids.
FYI as a parent of two PO students, 1 of which was “recruited” there is no opportunity to be supported in admissions WITHOUT having academic qualifications equal to the standard admitted student body ie you must be qualified or it’s a no go.
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Yes, I agree completely with that. Didn’t mean to imply otherwise.
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Of course there are always exceptions. I should note CMC does allow some variance a click or two below the mean.
Re the Claremonts, I know a few recruits that got in and a few recruits that were crushed when they didn’t. The coach we met with stated that he didn’t have much pull with admissions, and his solution was to encourage recruits to apply to Pitzer. That’s my problem with the Claremonts (all great schools), but coaches may not be able to give the same level of assurance of admission that other schools can. It goes without saying that you need top notch scores and grades, but you also need to ask specific questions about the likelihood of admission. Recruits should have a fairly good idea of their chances for admission by the time they apply, and the Claremonts tend to be more murky.
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Thanks!! These schools look nice.
Ahhh, MIT and Chicago will be dream schools, but my sons will most definitely struggle with academics. How do athletes select colleges? I think athletes should select colleges that his/her academics falls above 50% at least. I would hesitate to have my son apply to colleges where he falls about the 25% range.
Nice article!! Thanks!!
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Ahh, maybe my son may see your daughter if he decides to go there. Yes you are right. The coach sounds really helpful. I mean this sounds so good. That should be motivation to any kids receiving this kind of guidance.
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My son actually responded to the questionnaires to these Claremont colleges.
He likes Pomona, but again their academic standard seems very high. How do we make sure that he won’t struggle? I guess that’s why they do the preread…
I agree it’s important to be comfortable with the academic fit. The coaches are pretty good at assessing that, and then the pre-read if things proceed to that. But yes, part of this process is to explore academic fit as a filter. Some of the past threads in the college search section might be helpful there.
The Claremont’s / never heard them referred to in this collective form before. I like it. Each school has their own unique admissions process and requirements. Each coach has a limited amount of ‘pull’ for each school, some schools more than others. It sounds to me like the coach was trying to be polite and direct in explaining they were unable to help. Our experience was simple and straightforward. The coach was clear. He was interested in supporting the application through the admissions process, and would have more ‘pull’ with an ED app given the transcript, rigor, gpa and standardized test scores met the median. Otherwise there would be no possible assistance.
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This past fall my S21 successfully navigated TnF recruiting, with a focus on high academic LACs/Ivies. You already have a refreshingly realistic approach to the process.
Since recruited athletes are often 6 months to years ahead of their peers in the college process, I recommend that you start talking to the college counselor at your son’s school as soon as possible. While they may not know nearly as much about athletic recruiting as you will gain from the amazing people on this board, they can give you advice on schools that will be an academic fit for your son. They should not merely identify schools where he could be admitted based on grades/test scores, but also answer your question “If my son was admitted, would he be an academic fit.” I believe that there are a ton of kids that would do great at highly selective schools, if only they could get through the front door … and athletics can be the key that opens that door.
I also recommend talking to your son’s high school track coach. While you should not assume that his coach will have much active involvement in the recruiting process, you should assume that interested college coaches will contact his HS coach. That is particularly true for this cycle, since I expect college coaches will need to rely more on projected times/heights/distances than on the results of limited competitions. You want to know in advance what the HS coach will say, so that you can target schools that are an athletic fit.
Athletic recruiting is anxiety inducing hard work, and is 100 times better than the traditional college admissions process.
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@PoGradDad20, I absolutely agree with everything that you have said. My post was to point out that recruiting at the consortium schools (better than Claremont colleges?) tilts more to the MIT/Chicago side of the pendulum than to the NESCAC side. The coach we spoke to said as much. This tends to result in “over recruiting,” i.e., that the coach with less admissions lee-way encourages the recruiting process with a greater number of athletes than at some of the other D3 colleges. Back in the day when you could see the names of the coach email addressees, I remember being surprised to see 50-75 on an email that expressly encouraged the recruiting process enough to prompt long distance travel to the school (not a camp invitation).
These are great schools in a great location. Not sure how much student interaction there is between the schools, but it always struck me as the perfect intersection of liberal arts education with enough students to be a small university.
This is why is pays to have a long list of potential schools, including those located in Claremont. The process will self direct. You never really know at which school you will get traction as a recruit until you try. A coach at a highly selective school might need exactly what a given athlete has to offer. It might be Pomona, and if it is that will be a fabulous experience. But there are other fabulous experiences to be had, and it may be where you least expect it.
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At most schools, there is some variance from sport to sport how much leeway a coach will have with academics. I have seen MANY posts in the Athletic Recruits forum that gave blanket statements about minimums schools had that were well over the numbers my son was given by coaches. I’ve had a couple posters argue that what I was saying couldn’t be right. But it really does vary sport to sport. In general, if it is a sport heavily populated by full pay families, the academic qualifications will be similar to that of the general student population. If it is a more “blue collar” type of sport or a revenue sport it will typically have a bit more leeway. Also it is not uncommon for a school to prioritize a couple of their sports. If they have a team or 2 that seem way better than the others, chances are that they have elected to let that coach dig a bit deeper for recruits.
It also varies quite a bit based on how good of a recruit we are talking about. A coach is going to be less eager to try to push for a borderline academic recruit who is going to be middle of the pack or a low conference placer. OTOH, if the athlete should be in the SEC but just really wants a LAC experience, a coach may be willing to pull out all the stops to try to get that recruit on campus.
I don’t have any details about the colleges in the Claremont Consortium, but I have seen many times that blanket statements about academic inflexibility may be accurate generally, but there are exceptions. The bottom line is that it is just really hard to know the answer without asking the coach. The good news is that most coaches are pretty upfront about it. If they have a hard cutoff of 30 ACT and need the average to be more like 33-34, they don’t want to waste your time or their time if it is unlikely that your child can reach that number.
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FWIW, we had a slightly different experience with Pomona. The baseball coach told our son he had 2 “slots” and he would give one to him if he applied ED, making his chances 95%±. Then and again he was a high stats kid. I don’t think our experience is inconsistent than yours; they likely allow a fairly high range of “soft support” to allow the coaches to fill their rosters. I agree with @dadof4kids assessment above.
On academic fit, I think if your kid is above the 25%, he should be able to make it academically with the caveat I will throw in at the end. Most academic D3’s (and Ivies) provide a lot of academic support for athletes. D3 coaches for the most part understand their athletes are there for their education first. The seasons are also limited to 1/3 of the year, although the teams will lift and practice together on their own in the off-season. I will say my D who played 4 years of D3 ball made better grades during season than off-season. I think the regimentation during the season made her time manage more effectively. The caveat I would make is that some kids may “drop down” to an easier major if they feel academic pressure, e.g. go from a STEM major to a humanities. There may also be some “imposter syndrome”, and you will always find some non-athletic students who are pretty dismissive of athletes.
Overall though, the D3 path is ideal for students who prioritize academics over sports, and sports being used as a way to enhance the college experience. It was ideal for my daughter. She was able to pursue a STEM major and play and start all 4 years. The mix and priorities (sport vs academics) was ideal for her. While she was capable of playing low D1 level ball, she probably would have been on the bench more than the field, and would unlikely have started as a freshmen like she did at her D3.
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