<p>Does having a successful season in a high profile sport increase a university's number of applicants?</p>
<p>Define “successful”? If you mean winning a national championship in football or basketball, then the answer is yes. But anything less than that will probably not increase the number of applicants.</p>
<p>Success in a high profile sport does increase the number of apps as well as other things related to a school’s success.</p>
<p>Alabama has tripled its apps over the last few years (was about 8000 apps per year to about 25,000). This has changed its acceptance rate as well. Acceptance rate used to be around 70%, now it’s about 45%. The acceptance rate would now be even lower, but the Master Plan also included growing the school…nearly doubling undergrad size. A new building completes about every 75 days…about 45 new buildings have been built during this time.</p>
<p>Scholarship offers have also been a factor, but those too have been positively affected by sports success because of funds generated by sports success help fund those scholarships. Also, alumni/donor support increased as well because of sports success.</p>
<p>Having a school’s name get free publicity in the media on a daily basis during app season is going to have an impact. Not to mention that during the TV airings of the games, the school usually airs an advertisement featuring the campus.</p>
<p>Winning championships in popular Big Div I sports like Football is a win/win for a school…more apps come in, sports profits are generated, alumin/donors give more money, the school’s coffers grow, the school can hire more profs, etc, etc. It’s a ripple effect of positive.</p>
<p>Winning championships in less popular sports probably doesn’t make any difference. Alabama won national championships last year in 4 sports, but people mostly only know about the one for football.</p>
<p>I believe 2 Virginia schools raised their profiles after making it to the Final Four in basketball-George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University.</p>
<p>Does anyone have stats on what occurred to applications to Davidson College when they had high profile basketball success a few years ago?</p>
<p>Notre Dame built its reputation on the back of the football program.</p>
<p>re: GMU
[GEORGE</a> MASON UNIVERSITY CONTINUES TO BENEFIT FROM FINAL FOUR RUN - Media and Public Relations - George Mason University](<a href=“http://eagle.gmu.edu/newsroom/591/]GEORGE”>http://eagle.gmu.edu/newsroom/591/)
They saw a 20% increase in applications after the Final Four.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I saw an article about an incease for Davidson but I can’t link it. Just google and it should come up.</p>
<p>The scuttlebutt around NC was that Davidson’s applications increased quite a bit after the almost-Final Four run, and I’ve heard the same for Appalachian after their 2007 (?) defeat of Michigan in football. I haven’t checked websites, though.</p>
<p>I think a school having D-1 sports helps (and being in a major conference helps even more). I don’t think a singular season W-L record matters much (unless you make a BCS bowl), but teams with good sports history will likely get more applications. The only exception (the singular season) is March Madness, if a team makes the tournament or does well I think it greatly increases its applicants the following year.</p>
<p>Davidson has always been elite though, and would have more Northerners applying anyway. A better lithmus test would be a George Mason or Butler.</p>
<p>I think Davidson’s actually a perfect example since it was largely unknown outside its core area prior to the b-ball success.</p>
<p>Ohio State Basketball in Final Four + Undefeated Urban Meyer in football + Over 12 million views of TBDBITL in a week + Highly rated academic programs across the board + Extremely generous OOS scholarships = Over 25% applicant increase projected for the upcoming year!! </p>
<p>Ohio State - The school with the most fans in the land!! Go Bucks!! :)</p>
<p>Thanks for all the answers!</p>