<p>i understand williams is d3, but how much does contacting the coach and getting recruited(?) help in admissions (say for someone at lower end of applicant pool but still fairly qualified)
sport in question:golf</p>
<p>I have heard that recruitment may help a ton when it comes to admissions.</p>
<p>However, as its name implies, the boost would be contingent on your attractiveness as an athletes and how “fairly qualified” you are.</p>
<p>Recruitment is a big hook at any elite school (although CalTech, Swarthmore, Chicago would do this on a smaller scale than Williams, Stanford). That said, even strong applicants can’t count on the final decision of the admissions committee based on any single hook). It’s always best, in addition, for your scores to be solidly in the middle 50% for the school, have strong grades and letters, etc.</p>
<p>Being in the middle 50% obviously doesn’t get you into the school. Something like 90% of the applicants in that group are not admitted. Heck, even the upper quartile must have something like a 70% “reject” rate. So, you have to bring something else to the table. Hence, the need for a “hook”. Athletics can be one such hook. </p>
<p>There are going to be 65 or-so recruited athletes in Williams’ class of 2016. The football team will account for 14 of them. Other sports will get 0 to 4-5 of these “tips”. Google “Haverford NY Times athletic recruiting Pennington” for a thorough and enlightening series of articles about the role athletic recruiting plays in elite college admissions.
Bottom line–if you are a top player on your high school team and your objective academic credentials (GPA, class rank, SATs) are competitive, golf might be the hook that distinguishes you from all the other super-talented kids applying to Williams next fall.</p>