I was curious if a recruited athlete (specifically for football) was to be offered application support by the coaching staff (for a preferred walk-on position, not scholarship), what is the likelihood of this student actually being accepted? How selective are the admissions counselors with their recruited athletes?
-GPA is an 87/100 (low, but took several AP/honors classes)
-ACT is a 31 (got it in one sitting; took test again recently and hoping for a 32 superscore)
-SAT II is 760 (only took one)
-Several solid extracurriculars
I would ask the coach as he will know best. However assuming the athlete has been pre-screened by admissions and then offered support by the team, the chances should be good. If the team is asking admissions for a likely letter and that comes through, that’s as good as admission in a very high percentage of cases.
^ @sgopal2, there are about 900 students participating in NCAA sports at Stanford, and only about 300 scholarships. So I definitely understand that not all athletes get scholarships, and that in many sports scholarships are divided, if given at all. But I still don’t understand what a “preferred walk-on” is. If an applicant is formally recruited and promised a spot on a team, then a Letter of Intent is the standard way of formalizing that commitment. If a coach is privately “recruiting” an applicant and telling them they have a high chance of making the team as a walk-on, then that is very different. That suggests to me that the coach is not willing to go out on a limb, either in terms of using up a Letter of Intent, or in terms of going to bat with the admissions committee. But I’m just guessing, as I have no idea what the term used by the OP actually means.
You are quite wrong about football at Stanford. You should not post if you don’t know. Like all the big time NCAA Football Team they have 85 full scholarships. Do you think they beat USC with walk ons?
“Now let’s compare this to some other teams. There are 15 scholarships for women’s basketball, 20 for women’s rowing, eight for tennis, 12 for volleyball, 12 for gymnastics, 85 for football, 13 for men’s basketball and 12 for women’s squash. In all these sports, there is clearly an abundance of money. The starters are on full rides. The reserves are on full rides. The benchwarmers that seldom play are on full rides. Heck, someone who is injured and hasn’t competed in three years is probably on a full ride. This is where the scholarship picture gets muddled. There are national championship winners and contenders and multiple-time All-Americans in equivalency sports that are getting little to no scholarship aid. Yet there are people who may not see playing time, or who are third string, who have full scholarships. Speaking for the minds of many across the nation…is this fair?”
Well, football and men’s basketball are where all the athletic dollars come from . . . not saying that football is more important than any other sport, but it is what generates the money. So in that sense 85 football scholarships seems fair.
What does seem more arbitrary is why women’s volleyball for example has 12 full rides, while women’s track for example has the equivalent of 18 for a far larger team . . . because that’s what the NCAA decided seems to be the answer as these are both non-revenue sports.
And to be clear I agree with having scholarships for non-revenue sports, it’s just the logic for the numbers by sport that I don’t quite follow (other than the general consideration that men’s non-revenue sports are going to get less funding than women’s, to counterbalance football for Title IX purposes).
@sgopal2 The coach has not mentioned a National Letter of Intent. NLI’s are for players on scholarship. @CaliCash Yes, I have graduated high school. I am taking a gap year.
It’s likely too late for you to get recruited by a d1 school. Especially Stanford. For power house football schools, verbal commits usually happen around sophomore and junior year with the official commitment in senior year. By the time you make your verbal commitment, you’re basically guaranteed in as long as you maintain a certain standard academically. Will you be playing in your gap year?
@CaliClash It isn’t typical for sophomores to verbally commit that early. Most commitments occur during senior year. I am currently on my gap year and am not currently playing for a team but I continue to train on my own (and the coaches know this).
If you aren’t on a team, it’s even less likely for you to be recruited. All of your tape is old. Maybe try a junior college first and then transfer. But at this point, you are not going directly to a D1 school, especially not Stanford who is top ranked in the country sports wise. They have access to top recruiting classes, why take the guy that has been out of a year?