<p>I have run cross country/track and field well enough in high school to compete for a division 3 team. In terms of college admission, will my athletic ability be able to influence admissions significantly? I have a 4.0 gpa and 1480 SAT. I am looking at top-level liberal arts colleges or cmu,mit,caltech. Or is it irrelevant in D3 athletics.</p>
<p>If your times are good enough (there is a website someone recently posted on a similar post w/times against which you can compare your own..and I think they were for D3 schools). Are you recruitable? If so, athletics are a HUGE hook. Good luck!</p>
<p>For MIT, athletic ability helps, but it doesn't help more than any other comparable extracurricular activity. Being amazing at baseball isn't really going to help any more than being amazing at, say, trumpet, but if you contact coaches for your sport and they're especially interested in you, it can help you stand out in the applicant pool.</p>
<p>I would suggest filling out the recruitment</a> form for your sport -- it certainly doesn't hurt.</p>
<p>You know when you let them know. Each website has a athele interest page. Fill em out and see what shakes out of the tree.</p>
<p>It will certainly help if you need that little boost for the top schools (MIT / CalTech). Though I don't know how much those schools care about their track teams, I did have a friend go to MIT for track (I think he was a 4:27 miler / 9:54 two miler) and he ended up becoming a pole vaulter last year! He also scored a 1580 on the SAT, however.</p>
<p>Being a recruited athlete will give you an <em>gigantic</em> advantage in admissions to Ivies and top D-III LACs. Definitely be in touch with coaches at the schools you're considering.</p>
<p>The near scandalous advantages enjoyed by athletic recruits at these institutions--and athletes' significant underperformance once admitted--was explored in Bowen/Levin's book "Reclaiming the Game" a few years ago. The heros of their story were schools like CMU, Emory, and MIT, who have managed to keep athletics in more perspective during the admissions process, so you'll get less of an admission bump at CMU/MIT.</p>
<p>I happen to agree with the huge advantages given to athletes at a lot of colleges, even though I'm not nearly good enough to be recruited. IMO, there are far fewer athletes who are talented and dedicated enough to play collegiate athletics than there are students who are academicaly qualified. Since athletics help promote the school and bring in money, and that there are fewer athletes to meet the demand for them, I think it's perfectly reasonable for them to have a large advantage.</p>
<p>Well i'll join the bandwagon in saying that athletics can be a major boost, but let say if they give you an atlethic scholarship or if you become part of the team you should really judge whether or not its worth it....I've seen really smart people who are good athletes drop oput of college because they can't keep up with going to practice/ playing and there academics..</p>
<p>Athletics can help alot, but playing sports especially at a division one school is very difficult. A friend of mine is a pitcher for UPENN's softball team and they play six games a week on top of traveling while also having to manage the normal courseload btw she attends Wharton. As the previous post stated, many do drop out because they realize they need to focus on their grades. It also helps if you play a position that they particularly need. If they have like 4 short stops but only 2 first basemen and they need more first basemen then your are more likely to be recruited.</p>