<p>Do they? I've played varsity baseball x 4 (2 yr. captaincy) and travel baseball since gr.3. BUT, does all this even matter if I'm not recruited? How much influence does athletics even have?</p>
<p>(didn't know where to post this. This forum gets a lot of traffic, so...)</p>
<p>Yes. It matters, obviously nowhere near to the same hooking extent, but, and especially at Yale, athletics will at least give you some leeway in not having cured cancer and AIDS and eliminating Malaria all in one fell swoop, but you really ought not to, in my best judgment, place too much faith in that athletics will save you. However, it certainly will give you a bit of help, and may well be the tipping point for you.</p>
<p>I agree with the above. Also, the fact that you were captain is great, because it’s a leadership position. Like the person above me stated, it isn’t a hook, and if the admissions committee is on the fence about whether or not to admit you, it probably won’t be the tipping factor, but it’s still definitely something to mention on your application and something to be proud of.</p>
<p>Hi, I just emailed the golf coach with some of my golf and academic statistics. I think that I would make a good fit for the Yale golf team. However, with admissions being as tricky as they are, do you think that the golf coach would have much pull in the admissions discussion? I was technically not recruited by Yale, but golfers typically do not get recruited as heavily as other athletes, particularly at ivy league schools.</p>
<p>if you aren’t recruited, then it doesn’t help, seeing as Yale DOES recruit for Golf(my suiotemate was recruited). So if you are recruited, it does help (though I know of a recruit last year who was not accepted (don’t know if she was the only one). Otherwise, doens’t make anymore difference than any other good EC does. Also, if you weren’t recruited, why did you e-mail the coach?</p>
<p>First off I know that Yale recruits golfers, that is why I said “as heavily.” I have also met several other golfers who have gone on to play at Ivy League schools. I emailed the coach because I go to a tiny school in the middle of nowhere that very rarely has athletic recruits for any major school. My school has also never sent anyone to HYPS or anything even remotely close to those schools. For these reasons, my school is not recognized for much of anything outside of the county that I live in and anyone who wants to play collegiate sports must do everything on their own. My golf coach who is also the athletic director has never sent a golfer to a D-1 school and does absolutely nothing to help me get recruited.
And when I say I wasn’t recruited that means that I wasn’t recruited by Yale. I have been offered a multitude of full ride scholarships to other schools in my area simply because of my name always being in the paper. Then I have also been offered other scholarships by coaches that I have emailed and called.
I know that Yale does not offer athletic scholarships but I still want to play golf for them.</p>
<p>As the parent of two Ivy-Leaguers (one at Yale), I have noticed that I have never seen an obese student at either college. Having athletics on your application shows that you exercise regularly, and consider your physical well-being an important aspect of your life. I think the Ivies care about this. Also, Yale was historically known as the athletic Ivy, altho I don’t know if this is still true.</p>
<p>^ I’m sorry, but that’s ridiculous. There are overweight students at Yale and everywhere else. I don’t know if Yale ever had a reputation as “the athletic Ivy”, but it hasn’t been in the past 40 years. (Which is different from having good sports teams.)</p>
<p>Participation in athletics is always a plus because it is associated with discipline, self-confidence, and well-roundedness. Participation, and leadership, in team sports is especially valued because it is associated with teamwork and leadership (in addition to discipline, etc.) There are other ways of showing those qualities, too, however, and other qualities that are valued. So, as everyone has said, it’s a plus, but hardly a guarantee or a requirement.</p>
<p>I don’t remember seeing any “OBESE” people actually ever, and very few people overweight. </p>
<p>But maybe that’s just because I usually try to pretend those people don’t exist. Bay is right.</p>
<p>^ This IS ridiculous, anyone have any IDEA of the kinds of lawsuits Yale can get hit with for discriminating against obese people??? Having sports might help as a good EC, but it will hardly help bc the adcom wants to fill the campus with beautiful athl;etic people…that’s pretty close to the height of shallow…
@GOPTexas, I’m really starting to wonder when you went to Yale, everything you’ve been posting seems outdated and not applicable to the Yale I know…</p>
<p>I’m surprised some think it “ridiculous” or “shallow” that Yale might value athleticism and fitness in its students. Anyone (unless seriously disabled) can participate in athletic activity of some sort. There is really no excuse for a young person not to.</p>
<p>Granted, this passage is referring to Yale way back in the first half of the 20th century, and I have heard that current President Levin is not so keen on sports anymore, but schools often retain some of the atmosphere of their original missions and goals:</p>
<p>
[quote]
The embodiment of the Yale ideal was the handsome, personable and intelligent (though not studious) young man of high character who was also an exceptional athlete. Sports loomed larger in undergraduate life at Yale than at Harvard, and Yale’s athletic success helped shape its distinctive identity. <a href=“From%20Jerome%20Karabel’s,%20%5Bi%5DThe%20Chosen%5B/i%5D.”>/quote</a></p>
<p>Karabel is talking about Dink Stover’s Yale, not anything anyone born in the past century would recognize. And, for “sports [to] loom larger in undergraduate life at Yale than at Harvard” – that’s not a heck of a high hurdle to clear! Yes, as between Harvard and Yale, Yale has probably been somewhat more sports-focused for a long time. But I don’t think people at Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton, or Penn would be overwhelmed with all the sports focus at Yale. Not to mention Ohio State. And it’s clear that Karabel is talking about cheering for sports, not playing them.</p>
<p>I don’t have any kind of comprehensive sense of whom Yale admits, and my kids’ cohort is aging out of being representative of current admissions policies. But of the kids I have seen accepted at Yale over the past 6-7 years, some have played sports meaningfully (i.e., high school varsity team membership, at least), and most haven’t. I don’t think anyone ever checked anyone’s BMI.</p>
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<p>This is true; Yale does not check applicants’ BMIs.</p>
<p>Were any of the Yale admits that you know of in the past 6-7 years obese or noticeably overweight? I only know of 5 Yale admits in our area admitted in that time period, and 2 were recruited athletes and the other 3 were slim/fit/average/healthy build but I have no knowledge of their high school athletic participation history.</p>
<p>I don’t know the reason, but there seems to be some relationship between Ivy League admissions and health/fitness. None of my Ds’ friends or suitemates, or anyone I have observed on either campus has been obese or seriously overweight. A couple of D’s girl friends appear to have put on the “freshman 10,” but that is a far cry from obesity. And even those couple of girls were athletes in high school. In a country where 30% of adults are obese, the fact that Yale students do not appear to mirror that statistic is notable. I would assume that an application that demonstrates the likelihood of a student’s fitness and good health would be a plus.</p>
<p>How many college kids in general are obese? Less than 30%. Also, the fact that you pretty much have to run around doing extracurriculars to get into a great school means that you’ll probably be fit to a limited extent. I don’t think the correlation means causation, though, as the last sentence of your post would suggest.</p>
<p>The smartest student I know is obese, although that isn’t the general rule</p>
<p>I agree with Mentos. Obese high school students are less likely to participate in certain extracurricular activities- even non-athletic activities. They are probably less likely to get glowing recommendation letters. It is also possible that obese students are less likely to apply to Yale and other highly competitive colleges.</p>
<p>Of the two students from around here who got into Yale last year, one’s main EC was playing the piano, the other was a Mu Alpha Theta (math team) national champion. Neither one did any kind of serious sports. </p>
<p>The most obese person I have ever met is a Yale grad. He’s put on some weight over the years, but he was already quite obese as a student.</p>