Caltech/MIT

[molliebatmit]

<p>

The bottom line is that an academically qualified recruited athlete will most likely make it in.

Again, this is not true.</p>

<p>I am happy to write to one of the admissions officers and get a definitive quote on this situation.</p>

[monstor344]

<p>^ I know people who have spoken to MIT’s baseball coaches recently and they’ve said that the coach gives a list of 25 ranked baseball players they are interested in to admissions. Of their top 10 choices, 8 were able to get in; these weren’t even archetypal “CC” applicants (4.0, 2300 SAT); the coach typically uses its top ranks on players who are D1-caliber athletes but only marginally qualified academically for MIT (think mid-700s math score, strong GPA/class rank, average across the board everywhere else).</p>

<p>If MIT’s athletes didn’t face a different admissions process, MIT wouldn’t have certain sports. “Oh, we only happened to admit 3 baseball players this year? It’s okay; let’s just cancel baseball for a season, only use it as an intramural sport, and hope we admit more the next.” That is an impossibility; the other option is for them to build a college baseball team from walk-on players, and if you want an idea of what said team would look like:</p>

<p>[Caltech</a> Athletics : 2009 Baseball Schedule](<a href=“http://gocaltech.com/sports/bsb/2008-09/schedule]Caltech”>http://gocaltech.com/sports/bsb/2008-09/schedule)
0-29. 0 wins. Those 7/8 inning games? They’re getting "mercy"ed in the majority of their games! Last season, MIT had 25 wins in 39 games. Why do you think that is? ALL of the teams MIT plays actively recruit college baseball players. If MIT didn’t recruit and were playing these same teams, their record would look more like Caltech’s.
(And sorry, ihs76! I know Caltech’s suckishness is probably a product of its size, but it’s because of its size that it is unable to create athletic quotas (or pretty much any quotas, for that matter.)</p>

<p>MIT doesn’t need to have a set number of olympiad winners, nor does it need a set number of scholarship winners; academics are a given at MIT and they need to establish no such quota; they can be the selective ones. But they will not attract athletes in the same way they attract hundreds of thousands of students. Athletes are slim pickings at most top academic schools.</p>

<p>Furthermore, developing a college-level athletic ability takes a lifetime of work whereas a typical strong but unremarkable EC takes considerably less time to develop. If that’s how MIT regarded athletics, most of its current athletes would be currently playing for peer schools. As remarkable as your husband’s qualifications were, they are clearly above those of the majority of MIT athletes.</p>

<p>But yes, I would be very interested if you wrote the admissions officers for a definitive quote.</p>

[molliebatmit]

<p>

the coach typically uses its top ranks on players who are D1-caliber athletes but only marginally qualified academically for MIT (think mid-700s math score, strong GPA/class rank, average across the board everywhere else).

First, I would not classify those types of students as “marginally academically qualified for MIT” – I would fall into that category, and I was not a recruited athlete. Contrary to popular wisdom on CC, not all MIT admits have perfect SAT scores and twenty AP tests on their applications.</p>

<p>

the other option is for them to build a college baseball team from walk-on players

I know the football team has many walk-ons (although I don’t know how many), and as jessiehl mentioned in post #7, the crew team is composed primarily of walk-ons as well.</p>

<p>I was a cheerleader at MIT, and am now the coach. We’re a club sport, and have no opportunity to recruit prefrosh; about half the people on the squad did not cheer in high school, but the other half did, and many are even from selective all-star cheer squads. And yet we manage to put together a talented squad every year (even in the absence of selective tryouts), and have been pleased with the results during the years we’ve gone to competition. </p>

<p>It’s possible to be good at something even if that trait is not directly selected for in admissions.</p>

<p>I wrote to Matt McGann, who’s the associate director of admissions at MIT. We’ll see if he gets a chance to write back.</p>

[molliebatmit]

<p>I got an email from Matt this weekend:

Athletes are a valued part of the MIT community, and we are proud to field the largest number of varsity teams of any Division III school. MIT also has the fourth most Academic All-Americans of any NCAA school, only trailing Nebraska, Notre Dame, and Penn State; MIT had 11 last year alone, including senior Jimmy Bartolotta, who was named CoSida/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American of the Year.</p>

<p>Athletes at MIT do not face a “different admissions process.” There is no separate athletic admissions committee. Coaches do not get to sit with the Dean and present their students in a special meeting as at many schools. There is no policy that we admit all academically-qualified recruited athletes. Perhaps more importantly, there is no “slot” system. What is a slot system? In a major article on Division III athletics admissions in 2005, the New York Times wrote,</p>

<p>

Broadly, Division III colleges are separated into those that use what is customarily called a slots system and those that do not. Slots are reserved for athletes in each freshman class, a specific number that typically represents 15 percent to 30 percent of those admitted. Colleges that do not have a slots system may admit more, or fewer, recruited athletes, but there is no set number.

</p>

<p>That is to say – we don’t hold open admissions spaces for teams/coaches, we have no quota or even any target for athletes.</p>

<p>That being said, we do value extracurricular talent, including athletic talent, in our admissions process. Most of MIT’s full-time coaches do recruit (though this recruitment bears little resemblance to what Division I schools call recruiting). Because of stereotypes and preconceived notions, many talented student-athletes are not aware that MIT even has varsity sports, much less that we’re actually pretty good (for example, a classmate of mine, Jason Szuminski '00, went on to pitch for the San Diego Padres, after completing his Aero-Astro degree). The outreach work of our coaches complements the work done by many at MIT in identifying talented prospective MIT students.</p>

<p>Coaches also provide insight into athletic talent, using the same mechanism that our music faculty and art faculty use to provide input on musical and artistic talent. When a prospective student-athlete fills out the “recruiting” form, it triggers a process similar to the process of a student submitting a music supplement or an arts supplement. The MIT faculty member or coach helps us to evaluate the talent and how a student might contribute to the existing communities on campus.</p>

<p>Many of you are familiar with our varsity men’s basketball team’s run in the NCAA Tournament last year, led by the previously mentioned Jimmy Bartolotta. Jimmy got a lot of press, but I think the biggest reason for the attention was his basketball skill combined with his academic talent – indeed, he was a double major at MIT, in physics and management. He didn’t spend the summer before his senior year in basketball camps running drills, but rather interning at Lockheed Martin.</p>

<p>@tomjonesistheman: If you are interested in participating in varsity athletics at MIT, you should contact the coach. The coach will help us fully understand your talents, just as we have music faculty help us understand how good someone is at the violin and how they might contribute to the music community here. And if you are admitted, it won’t be because you were an athlete – it will be because you were a good match for MIT.

</p>

[monstor344]

<p>So it appears the reality is a bit of a mix of our 2 sides, with your words probably holding more truth than mine. I’m rather surprised that MIT doesn’t hold athletic slots, but on the other hand I was right in the sense that they do recruit athletes.</p>

[molliebatmit]

<p>Of course they recruit athletes – there’s an athletic recruitment link on the athletic department’s webpage: <a href=“http://web.mit.edu/athletics/www/varsity/recruit-me.html[/url]”>http://web.mit.edu/athletics/www/varsity/recruit-me.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Of course, it asks for SAT scores and academic honors before it asks anything about athletic talent.</p>

[ihs76]

<p>Since the title of OP did contain a reference to Caltech, here’s a little Mental Health Break for you all. Watch and enjoy.</p>

<p>[Quantum</a> Hoops](<a href=“http://www.quantumhoops.com/index2.htm]Quantum”>Quantum Hoops)</p>

[tomjonesistheman]

<p>Hmm alright thanks! I filled out the recruitment form a few weeks ago actually, and kinda got an automated reply with a personal note from the coach, who basically said that if I improved a little this year, then I might have a chance of getting on the team, but nothing more.</p>