<p>I don't think you'd have to commit to anything to just fill out the form and get more information.</p>
<p>Also, it's not uncommon for players to drop a sport if they decide it's too much of a commitment that's affecting their schoolwork. A couple of field hockey players did this and our coach was very supportive. I would ask the soccer coach how she feels about it, but I imagine she's similarly inclined.</p>
<p>If you don't have great accomplishments in sports, will it hurt you much? Or will it just be like another guy has some EC that you don't?</p>
<p>I do XC and Track, but I'm not that great.</p>
<p>Obviously if the coach decides you're not "up to par" so to speak with the program, they're not goign to let you represent the school at the top levels, but no caoch is ever going to say anything but "stick with it, slug it out, there's always scope for improvement and hard work pays off" (unless of course the school is ubercompetitive or the coach just plain sucks).</p>
<p>And if you're talking in terms of whether its going to hurt your app:
It really is what you make of it... In my UMich essay (which is where i was accepted) I wrote about my sports "career" as it were...three years of working my butt off, and i never manged to crack our varsity lineup... but i still kept at it and still remained dedicated, and it was the dedication and the lessons i learned from it, that i wrote about, not the negative.</p>
<p>If you can spin anything in a positive light, it tends to give the admissions officers a much better view of you as a person... positivity > negativity.</p>
<p>And plenty of state/national level athletes have bad attitude and generally are bad people... so... yeah. :)</p>
<p>Yeah so my HS field hockey coach took me aside after the first game of my senior year because I had played JV...and told me not to worry about the fact that I'd never be good enough for varsity because being mediocre for the rest of your life is nothing to be ashamed of. (Yeah I had a bad HS athletics experience.)</p>
<p>Anyway, I stuck it out and became a varsity starter by the end of the season, so I showed her who was boss. I wrote the MIT essay (the one about overcoming failure) about this.</p>
<p>Dragon got it exactly right. Sports are just like any activity- they are what you make of them. You'll get points for dedication and stuff like that, but the real money lies in expressing what it means to you and how it makes you an awesome person.</p>
<p>And don't forget that MIT is division III, meaning that "awesomeness or not awesomeness at sports" is just not one of the criteria for admissions.</p>
<p>thanks mollie...i have one more question. I am a junior and on the form it has where you fill out SAT/SAT2/AP's and i haven't taken those yet...should i still send in the form or should i wait till june?</p>
<p>Yeah, I'd say wait until you have the SAT. June is still relatively early to contact a coach too, so you're fine.</p>
<p>So for sports like Mens Basketball and Mens Lacrosse, can the coach put in a word to help with admission? </p>
<p>If so, how many recommendations can they put in? (ie, how many spots each)</p>
<p>I believe they can put in as many recommendations as they want, but their recommendations aren't a sure thing by any means -- it's not like Division I, where the coaches have a set number of people they can get in. </p>
<p>You should feel free to contact coaches of sports which interest you, and if you are recruited it will help to show committment to an extracurricular activity on your part, but being good at sports isn't a surefire "in" to MIT.</p>
<p>mollie is right, unlike most schools, even division 3 schools, coaches at MIT can write as many letters of recommendation as they want, but also unlike most schools, even division 3 schools, no coach can guarantee to you that you will get in.</p>
<p>That being said, from what I have seen MIT coaches are taught to be responsible about the number of recommendations they give out, and I think most will be honest with you and not string you along if they don't think your numbers cut it. (this I believe contrasts greatly with coaches at other schools, who will almost always tell you apply, they just won't sponsor you....)</p>
<p>So the most important thing is, even if you're just thinking about doing a sport, is to contact the coach and talk to him about both your academic and athletic achievements, and see what they say. (Many have been around for awhile and can be a very valuable resource) If you contact a coach, it's their job to talk to you, so they should get back to you.</p>
<p>Lastly, as for how much weight the recommendations pull, I think a few things come into consideration. 1 is the sport, because I think admissions knows they may have to give a little bit more for certain sports in order to field a competitive team. 2 is the relationship that a coach has with the admissions. Some coaches have been around for awhile, and have built a relationship with admissions such that when they say they really need somebody, admissions may help out a little bit more. Lastly is how good the letter is that the coach writes for you, and this often has to do both with how good you are athletcially, as well as the coaches needs on the team. Luckily, you don't have much control over any of those things, so I would ask the coach straight up to let you know your chances given the letter he's going to write you (if he does say that he will write you one) and see what he says. Both in my experience, and with others that I've heard in other sports, coaches will be pretty straight up with you.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great responses.</p>
<p>For students interested in athletics, is it better to apply EA or RD?</p>
<p>For <em>any</em> students, I think it's safe to say that if your application is ready and looking good, there's no reason not to apply EA: it's not restrictive, it's not binding, and if you're deferred to RD consideration, your application will get a complete re-review (and you'll have a couple more months in which to send in supplemental materials if relevant). If you think your application won't look strong enough academically until after first semester or if you can't get excellent reference letters early, wait for RD but otherwise there's not much reason to wait. :) (Sorry if that increases your load for this fall, Ben!)</p>