Be sure you’re doing all you can on your end. That means working hard this year to get your latest grades up so they can at least have some progress to point to. This isn’t completely out of your control even now. Good luck.
The coach should know, and at least thinks there is a chance to get you in or he wouldn’t waste his time with you. But if you are borderline you need to ask the coach pointblank “of the kids with my stats you have recruited, what percentage have been denied by admissions?”
He will be in a better position to answer after the pre-read. But you definitely need to ask.
Yes that is what I feel exactly. Although I have a low gpa of 3.2 my SAT of 1450 is high. The early read should be finished by next Monday. Based on the preread he told me I was a competitive applicant and that he would offer me full support in admissions(Slot).
Another athlete that he supported got in with a 3.75(UW) and 1370 SAT.
there is a big difference between a 3.2 and 3.7 GPA. The rigor of your schedule, and the school itself are also taken into consideration.
@57special rigor wasn’t a problem for me because ever since freshman year I’ve been taking ap/ib classes. I took a total of 18 ap/ib classes over 4 years. However my gpa did suffer
Yeah, that’s always the dilemma. Do I take easier classes and ace them, or harder classes and have my GPA suffer. Oh well, a GPA of 3.2 with a rigorous schedule is better than one without.
For purposes of comparison. S1 had a GPA of 3.6 and an ACT of 33, and was a recruited athlete to high academic schools. I got the feeling that the only thing that limited his school choice was his athletics, not his academics, and that included some Ivies. A friend of his who is very good in his sport but with a 3.3 GPA was told by Davidson that his academics weren’t good enough.
Grinnell is a really good school with great funding. If you think you would be happy there, and could use your athletics to get an acceptance, then it’s a great choice.
Just tell the coaches of the schools what your academic stats are. They’ll let you know where you stand. If they are kind of vague, it’s usually a no.
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@57special the coach told me that I was a competitive applicant based on my SAT and GPA and is getting an early read right now with his slot taken into consideration. Hoping that goes well and as expected coaches are very busy to speak to in the middle of the season so he hasn’t been vague but seems optimistic.
Best of luck to you! If you are an excellent athlete, then you definitely get a boost in admissions if they have a need for you. If you are used to rigor at your present school then you should be fine academically, depending on the school and the major. Certain places like Swarthmore and U of CHI have reputations of being more demanding than most.
Ok so admissions told the coach that I was a competitive applicant but there was concern about a C I received my junior year. He said overall it was a pretty good early read and he should know more over the next 2-3 weeks. At least my grades for this mid-year report are pretty good as I have a 4.0 weighted GPA. The mid-year report has not yet been taken into account. Hoping someone can decipher this language and let me know if I should be optimistic.
Note that Grinnell RD applicants are starting to get their acceptance letters. You may want to confirm with the coach if you still have a shot at a slot and if so when he will confirm.
Hello @Indianmamba4, son w very similar stats and scenario, if not stronger GPA, and wondering of your S’s outcome, ie, School, which slot coach used if any (a, b or c), and if you can share sport or event? Just a comment that Feb seems like a late read in the whole recruiting process. Best.
@TheGreyKing I would have to add that I believe the bands are more competitive than you suggest, ie, S being told SATs around high 1400s and A-/B+ is a high C band. Is it your experience that the Bands are sport or event dependent? Have you heard of top tier athletes not being admitted or a coach not allowed to support a single C band kid?
@bigfandave- I am sorry, but I have no expertise in this area. Above I shared information I found online, from the three sources I named above, and I shared an anecdote. If your son is being recruited, the coach can tell him the most accurate information for his/her school.
Good luck!
My son was “in the range” but bottom half of the range, where he now attends.
Yes his coach helped, but he had relevant EC besides his sport, and a profile that might have gotten him in anyway.
Coach just sealed the deal.
But there are schools that told us they had less influence, tippy top academics like Hopkins and Caltech.
Hopkins said they used to be able to get bottom half stats in, but now must be mid-top range.
@bigfandave When my kid went through the process at a NESCAC school, we were never told the band cut-offs, but SAT scores in the high 1400’s are getting into the top 1 percentile range. I would be very surprised if the C band is that high.
Has your son submitted his academic info for a pre-read? A positive pre-read with coach’s support is the most important feedback for your son to get. Then it won’t matter what band he fell into.
Good luck!
@shuttlebus yes on same scores and yes on pre-read and that was feedback per above. Just seems odd those stats aren’t B band material. Hey, part of being on a team or an individual contributor on a team sport is “taking one for the team” and helping to lift all boats as a solid teammate, so it could be Coach simply wants a high cumulative academic profile because others on team - already and new recruits - have lower stats. I get that. We hope it works out. More dialogue will be necessary any way we cut it.
@bigfandave Is the coach asking your son to apply ED? In our case, while the coach couldn’t guarantee acceptance by applying ED, he did say that he had a 100% acceptance rate over many years with his recruits that applied ED. That language reassured us to apply ED.
Requiring an SAT in the top 1% for Band C does seem odd, especially now that the College Board has published revised concordance tables. I wonder if the school you are dealing with is still using the old, inaccurate concordance tables? That may explain why high 1400s would be Band C?
Good luck figuring everything out!
@shuttlebus I would have to assume-may be incorrectly-that a top tier LAC knows what concordance tables to look at. That being said, are you referencing concordance of SAT to ACT or old SAT to new SAT (now in its 2nd year)?
@bigfandave. The College Board recently released revised concordance tables since the first attempt was inaccurate. They didn’t bother creating new concordances for the old vs new SAT. The new concordance tables are for the new SAT and the ACT. I do know that this past admissions cycle, some coaches were instructing their recruits to take the ACT instead of the SAT because they were finding that students that could not get past admissions with the SAT, were able to get past admissions with the ACT. This should not be the case now with the revised concordance tables.
A 1450-1480 now concords to a 33 ACT, while a 1490 is a 34. Amherst middle 50% is a 32-34. It seems odd to me that a band C would need to have a 33 or 34 ACT, which correspond to a high 1400.