<p>Short and sweet: If you're going the "recruited athlete" route, how much would you say letters of recommendation factor in?</p>
<p>Ultimately, it depends on how competitive the school is and their admissions policy. For some schools it will be a “check box” and other schools it could be the difference in admissions. The more selective and competitive the school, the more important EVERYTHING becomes. The stakes are much higher with recommmendations, essays and all the other qualitative evaluations of your HS work and attitude for the elite and very competitive schools.</p>
<p>I look at it this way, it can only hurt you. You’re probably not going to get admission solely based on a teacher/councelor recommendation but it can certainly knock you out of the running if the school has questions or doubts about your record. Your job is to give them no question or doubt about your record or character. Personally, I would not take any short cuts (least effort possible) in the application process for an elite or very competitive school. The difference between admission/waiting list/denied can be so slight at these schools as I recently learned at an Ivy orientation. Always put your best foot forward.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I agree with fenway. If you’ve got coach’s support and the requisite academic credentials, adcoms want to accept you. You don’t need “fantastic references” or “killer essays” to distinguish yourself from the crowd, but a negative recommendation or a careless essay could probably sink you.</p>
<p>Or, to paraphrase fenway, OK is probably fine, bad could be fatal.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! </p>
<p>The thing is, I could get “good” recommendations, by which I mean I can get two teachers who would write that, “WaterWorks is a wonderful student and a pleasure to teach…blahblahblah…” but nothing mind-blowing.</p>
<p>Should be fine.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>