<p>Don't forget to check online tomorrow to see if you've been admitted! The decisions were mailed out this morning, and you should receive that soon, but you can find out right away by checking your Pioneer Web Account. Also, don't forget to sign up for one of the three visit weekends in April! </p>
<p>Give me a call once you get your decision and we'll go over everything.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>Head Football and Assistant Track Coach</p>
<h2>Grinnell College</h2>
<p>After getting this gung-ho message like a bolt from the blue on Friday night, our son rose excitedly the next morning to learn that hed been rejected. Sure, well have him call you, coach, but what will you talk about? How about whether its too much to expect the admissions director and coach at an elite school to talk to one another before sending such an enthusiastic message AFTER the decision to reject has already been made? Oh, by the way, our son hasnt played football in two years, which you folks would have known had you actually read his application.</p>
<p>Ouch!! That could sure have been handled better! Someone from Grinnell does read these threads, so maybe they’ll pass this on to the football coach and a lesson can be learned.</p>
<p>Yes, and the weird thing was his common app and essay clearly said he didn’t really enjoy high school football and quit after sophomore year. That’s why we’re sure no one really read his essays.</p>
<p>Parent 46 - that was really unkind. You might want to let Admissions know. You have nothing to lose, and it might save someone else like your son some heartache next year.</p>
<p>I see what you are saying, but I don’t feel like it was too unfair or anything. The only odd thing was the coach saying to check for visit dates, that was kind of not cool. But it sounds like your son was a recruited athlete who got an enthusiastic letter from a coach (I got plenty, and I didn’t get into all the schools the coach’s said I’d get in). That’s not cruelty, that’s life.
You want to hear a cruel turndown? How about the people who ACTUALLY RECEIVED ADMISSION LETTERS and were revoked because of a mistake, not vague letters from a coach which, while hopeful, certainly didn’t state your son would get in.
It’s a bit sad that you angrily take out your dissapointment with your son’s rejection on the school.
Coaches don’t clear their emails with admissions, and from what coaches have told me, they don’t know much before you do.
The quality of the institution doesn’t change because they made a small mistake about giving you false hope about admission. “elite” doesn’t deserve quotes, is it not elite because you got rejected.</p>
<p>It’s just one college, relax, basically. I’m sure your son will go where it is best and have a great time and get a great education.</p>
<p>I disagree with the last two posters, and agree with those suggesting you contact admissions to let them know. I hope that you would do it in the spirit of helping them learn to avoid unnecessary pain for future prospies. </p>
<p>It seems a lot of schools are having glitches with email notifications during the admissions process these days. Wouldn’t be surprised if it all reverts to snail mail. More control that way I think!</p>
<p>This was different from the glitch at Vassar where they mistakenly told applicants they had been admitted when, in fact, they had not. My guess is that Grinnell doesn’t do a heavy job of football recruiting and the coach automatically sends an email like that to any prospect who has checked a box on his application that he played football at any point in his HS career. The coach didn’t read the essay and the admissions department didn’t go through the list submitted to the coach to pluck out any that had indicated in an ESSAY that they no longer played football.
Inartful? Yes. But I would not under any circumstances have assumed after receiving that kind of email from a coach I had had no contact with that I had been admitted.</p>
<p>My D was actually a recruited athlete and got a similar email from the coach of another sport because she’s a 2 sport athlete. It was kind of funny. When she replied and told him she was recruited to play a different sport I believe what he said was that the coaches just get a list of athletes who check the box on the app. Grinnell has a fairly open no cut sport policy which means some potential students might not know they have a good chance to be on a team. I agree - it sure wasn’t a good thing for your son, but I’m not think there was malice on the coach’s part. It might be worth telling the admission folks - maybe the coaches can be clearer when they send out emails that all of this is pending admission.</p>
Son, a senior, applies to Kenyon. Has test scores above average for Kenyon, a turnaround story with a 4-plus GPA while taking mostly AP courses his last three semesters, has won a citywide writing award and top English award; Kenyon seems worth a shot.
Kenyon within days offers a grant to cover airfare from West Coast for a campus visit. Wow.
Middle-class parents, unable to afford such a visit on their budget, happily accept.
Kenyon football coach, head of a losing program, emails son to ask if he has “film” of his football experience. What? Son played freshman football mostly as a benchwarmer, then quit after soph year because he was disgusted by the coaches’ reliance on shame and humiliation. It’s all there in his essay and common app bio. Did you read any of it?
Son emails football coach to tell him he’s not that great a football player, is a small guy, but would love to try out. Starts weightlifting regimen. Loves idea of going to Kenyon.
Football coach is never heard from again.
Son arrives at Kenyon for campus visit. While son is away, father watches Kenyon video in which football coach says he’s bringing lots of potential recruits to campus. Uh-oh. Guess it wasn’t son’s writing skill they liked.
At Kenyon, football player/guide greets son, is surprised by his diminutive size. Takes son on perfunctory campus tour.
No adult from Kenyon football staff or athletic department bothers to meet son, say hello or shake his hand. No adult from Kenyon admissions staff bothers to meet son, say hello or shake his hand.
Football player/guide ditches son, but shows him where dining hall is so he can eat lunch alone.
After returning home, son doesn’t seem that excited about Kenyon anymore. Wonders why he should send a thank-you note, since no adult ever welcomed him there, but writes one anyway.
Kenyon admissions director sends marvelously upbeat letter, hoping Kenyon will “be a good fit for you.” Great! Although close reading indicates it’s a form letter, naive son’s and parents’ spirits are high. Son improves yet again, to a 4.5 GPA for senior fall semester, all AP or IB classes, after a 4.2 for his junior year. Son had frosh and soph slacker years with a 2.99 GPA –the years he was playing football – but Kenyon knows all this.
<p>Remember, all I am trying to point out is that a) the Grinnell coach should have gotten the updated email list of who was accepted and who was not before posting something that would obviously get a prospective applicant’s hopes up; b) Kenyon should not have flown my son out there after receiving an essay talking about how much he hated football. Ask first, then fly them out!</p>
<p>Anyhow, the main reason I posted these two things is because I realized the possibility that these things might not pan out, and I kept searching College Confidential for items such as “received Kenyon travel grant but was turned down anyway,” but couldn’t find anything. Now hopefully this post will be out there for parents in the future who want to know if something means anything.</p>
<p>Amazing story. D is a Grinnell senior who was courted by the swim team. However, she did fill out the athletic questionnaire on their website as she did at some of the other hard-to-get-in schools she applied to. Applying for and agreeing to do sports was suggested as a way for possibly getting a class-building nod from admissions. Fortunately she did not need this as she also had music and the SAT as “hooks”. She was only contacted by schools where she had completed online questionnaires. She was invited out to visit schools but on our dime. We were told Division III schools were not allowed to spend money recruiting. The colleges were so careful about adhering to DIII dictates. One school launched into a DIII rules talk when she made the mistake of asking to have or purchase the team’s cute t-shirt.</p>
<p>Another poster mentioned Oberlin. At least in swimming, the coach was very careful. We paid for her to fly to Cleveland and the team picked her up, assigned her to a couple of girls that housed her, took her to class and fed her in the dining hall. There was a fairly large group of prospies as it was a swimming weekend. She even got to go to her first college party (the coach was not happy about that as one of the prospies drank)</p>
<p>D was a good swimmer. Two years later, our son filled out the website questionnaires for swimming and XC. He was not much of an athlete and was not courted the way D was. Most schools never even bothered to contact him.</p>
<p>I guess football does things differently. If you wanted to pursue the Kenyon issue, you could contact the governing body of DIII and tell your story as it sounds like that was a terrible experience for your child. I imagine you could find the DIII recruiting rules about spending money on airline flights somewhere on the web.</p>
<p>I don’t want to make excuses for Grinnell but I imagine the unexpected 52% applicant increase this year really threw things into a spin in admissions. I wonder if they were able to hire additional staff in order to wade through the materials?</p>
<p>As a division III school Kenyon would not be able to give your son a free trip to visit campus for athletics, it would have to come from the admissions department solely.</p>
I’m sure your son will go where it is best and have a great time and get a great education.</p>