<p>Is it fair to compare Bowdoin admissions to non-HYPM Ivy admissions? Is it okay to assume the same bump for admissions that Ivies would offer at Bowdoin, like 2000 SAT is okay instead of 2200 SAT being essentially a minimum?</p>
<p>Can the coaches support athletes to admissions even though it is D3? Or does anyone have experience that the coach recruits but says you are on your own with admissions?</p>
<p>Son really likes Bowdoin but is paranoid about his GPA (3.4U)and test scores (2000 SAT), but I can’t imagine Bowdoin and similar can be more competitive than Ivies, but I don’t know because of smaller student body. </p>
<p>From what I understand, if a NESCAC coach really wants an athlete (and the athlete can meet the college’s admissions standards) the coach will have some admissions pull if the athlete commits to applying ED. </p>
<p>Any coach’s support definitely helps. I think your sons GPA and SAT’s for Bowdoin are both a bit low, but within the range assuming the rest of the resume works (good activities, some leadership, academic rigor). Visit, interview on campus, meet the coach, go to local events (depending on where you live), and show them you are committed to Bowdoin. As mentioned by @lr4550, apply ED…it’s probably the biggest chance to improve the odds.</p>
<p>2fedup – Your son should be talking to the Bowdoin coach in the sport of his choice. Only he can answer your question with any reliability. Yes, there is an elaborate system of tips and slots for athlete applicants, with a thumb being placed on the admission’s scale in direct relationship to the the applicant’s athletic prowess and where his sport stands in Bowdoin’s pecking order . .Football has 14 slots, hockey has 4-6, and so on. There are about 70 athletes admitted through this system every year. </p>
<p>merc81 – that kid was also an URM so would not extrapolate from his stats as indicative of what most athletes will face in terms of expectations as to their scores and GPAs.</p>
<p>torasee: No doubt your information is useful to the original poster, which is the essence of this forum. Nonetheless, the case I pointed out is a fairly curious one. Even with possible URM status, that applicant was still denied admission by 18 of the schools he applied to, so it appears Bowdoin’s interest in his football ability was the primary criterion for admission. (His extracurrics [sic] are listed as football and a part time job.) So, in at least one case, Bowdoin had lower admissions standards for an athlete than 18 other schools. That should leave a fair margin at this college for 2fedup’s son, whose SAT scores are 350 points higher.</p>
<p>@merc81, Bowdoin is test-optional, so it’s probable the school never saw his scores, scores that hurt him at many of the other schools to which he applied. BTW, I checked the story. He got into half of the colleges he applied to, just not any Ivies. He says he was turned on to Bowdoin by the Harvard coach.</p>
<p>Sue22: He was denied by 18 schools. So that would be by at least 10 “non-Ivy” schools. . . . I think his case without his scores is possibly even weaker. Then, according to the profile, he has a 3.3 GPA, slim ECs, and an essay of indeterminate merit. Plus football. </p>
<p>@merc81, Sure, and he got into 17 schools. Undoubtedly football was a big hook, and it may be that Bowdoin was looking for a talented running back that year. It doesn’t tell us all that much about the OP’s son chances with an only slightly better GPA. The SAT score is pretty much irrelevant if the kid in the USNWR story didn’t submit his. EC’s are also not of primary importance when we’re talking about an extremely strong athlete, and for all we know the USNWR student spent 30 hours a week at his part-time job.</p>
<p>Torasee’s information is spot on. Hopefully the OP’s son has already been in conversation with the Bowdoin coach. If not, he has some catching up to do, as most coaches have already formed their lists and sent the academic information of their top choices to admissions for a pre-read, and will expect a commitment to applying ED.</p>
<p>NESCAC coaches can definitely advocate for a candidate and help a relatively weak candidate gain admission. Whether the student will be accepted depends on a number of factors including:</p>
<p>-Number of slots available (see Torasee’s post)
-Whether the student submits an ED application. (as noted by other posters) Coaches want student athletes to commit. they’re less likely to use up one of their precious slots on a kid who may choose a rival school.
-Where the candidate falls on the coach’s priority list. An exceptionally high calibre player may get in with lower stats than just a good one if a coach put on a hard push with admissions.
-Institutional priorities. A school may be more willing to stretch for a candidate in a sport in which they’ve dominated the league in order to keep that top spot. Conversely they may do the same to shore up a weak program in a highly visible sport like football.
-The academic strength of the individual school. A successful candidate at Amherst will generally need better stats than one at Conn. College, although admissions at neither school will admit a candidate they don’t feel is capable of academic success.
-Whether the candidate brings anything else to the party that admissions values.</p>
<p>D is being recruited by NESCACs and has already been given positive pre-reads at the couple in which she was most interested. She’ll apply ED to her first choice. She hasn’t been given any guarantees but feels confident, even though her stats fall below the average for the school. Time will tell.</p>
<p>Sue 22: “. . . for all we know the USNWR student spent 30 hours a week at his part-time job.” If I implied that I had enough information to fully and fairly evaluate this applicant, then that was a deficiency in communication on my part. </p>
<p>However, the OP did phrase a question in terms of SAT scores and GPA. So my posts were intended to offer a corresponding set of facts, while leaving any conclusions subject to further information and opinion.</p>
<p>Sue22: “. . . for all we know the USNWR student spent 30 hours a week at his part-time job.” This would be illegal for a minor in many states, so even when all the facts are not known, at least some of them can be reasonably inferred. Particularly in this case where the student says that one of his regrets is that he hadn’t “worked harder [in school]” as a freshman and sophomore. </p>
<p>^Yup, you’re right! I guess I was just thinking that it’s always hard to extrapolate from one data point, particularly when we don’t have all the information. </p>