Will a recruited athlete at the University of Chicago receive a decent pull by the coach/admissions office, given that all other stats are average/okay - 3.8 UW (2 b’s) , 2150 SAT, Good EC’s, 9 APs by graduation, and good essays?
Thanks for any input!
The effect of recruitment depends on lots of things – the coach, the sport, how much the coach wants you, how much the coach wants other people in your recruiting class. As a general matter, though, yes. A qualified candidate with strong support from a coach in a varsity sport who is reasonably judicious in his support has close to a 100% chance of admission. If the coach supports four or five people for two slots, each of them has about a 40-50% chance of admission (which is a lot higher than the norm).
I have heard that UChicago allows a coach to have a couple of spots reserved for her/his team, assuming the recruited athlete is OK in other areas.
It also depends on an athlete’s skill level. If you are way ahead DIII level you have a much better chance - maybe the top target of your coach. If you are an individual athlete you can check UChicago Athletic Department for the marks. If you are a team sport player you can check its videos.
Bottom line you need to be close to the top in your coach’s list to have that advantage.
By “OK” stats, would mine be within that standard? For my math+cr SAT score, it’s only a little above the 25th percentile mark, but If I could make my way towards the higher end of the coach’s list, do you think I would have a decent chance? Not necessarily 100% but much higher than the reported 8%?
Is it fair to say that simply being a recruited athlete, no matter my position on the coach’s list still gives me a “hook” and therefore increases my chance? But exactly how much of an increase depends on where I am on the coach’s list right?
Your stats are OK compared to those of one person recruited by coach I have heard of. It is a range.
But your athletics need to be at the top on the list to have any significant advantages. Coach usually has two types of players. One is admitted with coach’s help while the other is permitted to join the team once the person gets admission on her/his own.
I think it’s more three types, at least that’s the case at most colleges: The coach can basically tell admissions to admit one or two people provided their stats are OK and there’s nothing awful in their applications. Then there’s another set where admissions will try to admit at least x people from a set that consists of x+n candidates. And finally, there are applicants where admissions knows the coach would be happy if they were admitted, but he doesn’t want them admitted in preference to any of the higher ranked recruits. Their sports ability is a plus in the consideration, but not much more.
This can produce some interesting game theory. If an athlete has very good stats, the coach may be unwilling to use his one free pass on that applicant, thinking that he will probably be admitted with lighter or even weak support, while another candidate, who may not be quite as good an athlete, has stats that would ensure rejection without the coach’s strong support. So the coach may make his #2 or #3 choice his top candidate, and gamble that his higher choices will get in anyway. (Remember, the coach will have a very good idea of how admissions views applicants, and will probably talk to admissions people on a regular basis and have inside information about how applications are being scored.)
That is interesting.
One person I know got recruited did not have high stats but was a good DIII athlete. However I know another person who had high stats and was at least as good a DIII athlete as the first one.
But a coach might have lost her/his top target if admission office had not offered the person a position.
Nickname-- yes athletics can be a good hook! My son was recently accepted to UChicago as an athlete. His “academic” stats were very similar to yours. You will still need to have “athletic” stats as well in order for the coaches to go to bat for you with admissions. For what its worth, my son was All Section and Honorable Mention All State in his sport. Which translates to being a good high school player but definetely not D1 talent.
The coaches seemed to have a great relationship with Admissions. Once the coach told us he was going to Admissions on behalf of my son, we knew within hours he would be getting a Likely Letter from Admissions.
Lets face it, nobody goes to UChicago as a steppingstone to a pro sports career. You go there to play a sport you love and to use the elite academics as a steppingstone to professional success in life.
My wife, my son, and I couldn’t be more excited! Good luck on both playing field and in the classroom this year Nickname!!!
Yes, athletics can be a substantial hook.
But when you say “recruited athlete” you need to mean 100%, as in the coach told you that he will talk to admissions about your application and support it. Just being told sweet nothings by coaches means exactly that, nothing.
Almost always the coach at a decent college will ask for your transcript and test scores, and get a pre-read, IF he really wants you as a varsity athlete.
It’s not like it is part of the picture, it is more binary that the coach wants you, and will go to bat for you. If he doesn’t, there is no difference even if you end up being a walk-on.
You should look at the Tier 1 and academic index website, I’m sure you would be a high tier.
@Thenickname, just by way of comparison, if you were talking with Ivy League schools your Academic Index is between 220 and 225 (there’s a calculator at the Tier 1 athletics website mentioned above). That is a strong set of academics for an Ivy athletic recruit.
I know it’s a bit of an apples to oranges comparison as that is D1 (albeit D1 with no athletic scholarships) and those schools have a pretty formalized system with pre-reads by admissions over the summer before senior year, a specific number of athletes each coach can support for admissions etc.
At some of the academically competitive D3 schools though, such as MIT, things are murkier, athletics does not seem to have all that much influence over admissions, and if you look at the MIT board there are a number of stories of athletes who were supported by coaches but didn’t get in. It appears that in that case the coaches submit relatively long lists and hope that admissions admits some of them.
All of which is to say, as things progress I would try and find out from the coach how things work at UChicago, how long of a list do they give to admissions, is the list rank ordered, how many of their recruits were admitted last year, etc. Teams may have more influence with admissions in some sports than others so sport-specific information is what I would look for.
What would they even look for in terms of recruits? I know a lot of DI/Ivy athletes went to private schools and had the best training possible. Did you go to a public high for your sport?
@codemachine, yes I go to a public school but also train year round as well with a club team. I have already talked to a couple other D3 coaches at fairly high ranked schools, and 1 already let me know that they would greatly support my application in the process, noting that my academics were good enough for doing so.
That being said, If I was to apply to U Chic early action with a tag of being a “recruit” but ended up being deferred into the regular pool, would my chances no longer be boosted, even if it was a small amount (5-10%)?
Well probably not because if you were being “heavily recruited” they would’ve accepted you EA. But if you’re tight with the coach at UChicago and he guarentees you a spot, I see no reason why you would even be deferred.
I agree with codemachine. If coach really likes you and you apply EA, then coach will really pull for you with Admissions. Unless you have Ivy coaches getting pre reads on you and offering Likely Letter, I would suggest applying EA. Also the new No Barriers program makes financial aid packages on par with Ivies.
After comparing financial aid and then having Likely Letter EA with UChicago, it was easy decision for my son to jump at acceptance with UChicago.
Don’t be afraid to have frank conversation with coaches. They have no reason to hurt their reputatiin with future recruits by not being totally honest with you?
Good luck!
At Chicago, the coaches really do have a saying about admissions, especially when the applicant is on the borderline. I know two wait listed kids were removed from the list because of the coache recommendations.
If you are far behind, then the coaches won’t help.
Do they recruit for club sports too? They don’t have varsity golf 
I want to reiterate what another poster said: Talk to the coach. Ask precise questions about what support you will receive, where you stand in the recruiting hierarchy, and how likely your admission is. College coaches are generally pretty good people, but their job is recruiting. If you don’t ask precise questions, they will usually tell you something you can interpret as what you want to hear. They will not, however, straight-out lie to a recruit. And this is what they live every day – it may embarrass you to ask about it, but it won’t embarrass them or make them think less of you. (Probably the opposite.)