<p>My aunt told me that Swat is currently trying to beef up its varsity athletic teams. Is this true? How competitive are their teams? What are their stronger sports? If a coach recommends an applicant/athlete, how helpful is that with admissions? I know Swat is division 3 and they don't recruit, but I was wondering if being an athlete might help with admissions a little.</p>
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My aunt told me that Swat is currently trying to beef up its varsity athletic teams. Is this true?
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<p>Yes, but in the context of a school that puts academics first. What actually happened is that they dumped football so they could give the other teams some recruited athletes.</p>
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How competitive are their teams? What are their stronger sports?
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<p>It varies. Some teams are pretty decent (meaning competitive in their Centennial League conference). Others not so good. I don't honestly follow it close enough to give you the complete rundown, but it seems mens soccer is doing pretty well. Women's tennis, I think. Check the website, there's a blurb on each sport. For the really bad teams, the blurb will talk a lot about the optimism for next year!</p>
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If a coach recommends an applicant/athlete, how helpful is that with admissions? I know Swat is division 3 and they don't recruit, but I was wondering if being an athlete might help with admissions a little.
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<p>Sure, it helps. The coaches have about 60 slots in each freshmen class for recruited athletes, some of those slots can be used on athletes with below-average academic qualifications. I'm not sure "how low they'll go", but they'd certainly take an impact player with 1300 SATs; they might go even a bit lower than that. However, the student has to be a decent fit for the school which, as I say, is pretty academically oriented. There aren't many "gut" majors where professors will go out of their way to accomodate athletes. </p>
<p>There aren't any "athletic dorms". Some of the athletic teams are overrepresented in the two small frats, but, otherwise, the athletes are regular Swatties and fully integrated into the campus culture -- again, something that is not the case at all Div. III schools.</p>
<p>About 20% to 22% of both men and women students at Swarthmore play a varsity sport. Most sports are available for "walk-on" players.</p>
<p>The lack of a football team is a benefit for recruited athletes in other sports. The 60 available athletic slots are spread pretty evenly across all of the men's and women's sports, something that is not the case at small Div III schools trying to stock football and ice hockey teams. </p>
<p>Athletic recruiting is tough at school like Swarthmore. They wouldn't touch some of the academic stats that the Ivy League schools will take to land an impact athlete. If you are a really smart, academically oriented student-athlete who is a good fit overall at Swarthmore, I'd say that your odds of getting accepted would be quite strong as an athletic recruit.</p>
<p>Honestly, the best thing to do is contact the coach in your sport and get the recruiting ball rolling. I think they'll shoot pretty straight with you.</p>
<p>Thanks Interesteddad! A Swat coach contacted me so I'll be sure to follow up. I'm feeling really encouraged and I appreciate your time.</p>