Misperceptions divide Vassar athletes and classmates

[Dave_Berry]

"When the application hits the table, are academics the only factor that sets prospective Vassar students apart?

16 percent of Vassar students are varsity student athletes. Was it their status as athletic recruits that led to their acceptance, or are these students just as, if not more, qualified as the rest of the student body?" …

http://miscellanynews.org/2016/12/07/sports/misperceptions-divide-vassar-athletes-and-classmates/

[MiddleburyDad2]

As a parent who has been through this three times, I can tell you the following:

1. Even at the most selective LACs and small colleges, athletic recruiting happens ... it's real and it helps.
2. The degree to which it helps not only varies from school to school, but at times, from sport to sport. Some coaches have more pull with admissions than others. A murky fact, but real nonetheless.
3. Even at a place like Vassar, which does not emphasize the success of its sports teams to the degree that, say, Williams does, they still care, and the coaches really care ... it's their job after all. For example, women's soccer clearly gets more juice from admissions than, say, women's crew, the latter in which the school seems to have only a passing interest.
4. Getting on the coach's magic "list" is a very powerful thing. That list is the coach's ultimate pull ... he/she can do no more for you than the act of using up a spot on their list. Again, some colleges will give more flex than others, but there's no denying that it helps pretty much everywhere except maybe Cal Tech. If you doubt this, tell me how many non-recruited Vassar applicants were told by anyone at Vassar that they needed a 31 on the ACT and a particular GPA the last semester of junior year to clear admissions? That's not how it works for anyone else. No, it was not a guarantee; there are no guarantees in selective admissions. But it's more clarity than anyone else gets.

Yes, depending on the circumstances, a Vassar classmate who is playing a sport may well be someone who would not be there “but for” their athletic recruitment. There is no misperception about it … I know this for a fact.

I loved this quote:

“When it comes to actually applying, we have a limited number of recommendations we can submit along with students applications. These recommendations won’t change anyone’s prior academic performance.”

Uh, yeah, no kidding. They’re not going to pro-forma a kid’s transcript. But the basketball recruit speaks the truth: call it “discrepancy” or anything else you like - it helps.

The secret sauce that only the coaches and adcoms really know is how much. Look at Williams College early decision pool and how much that makes up of the entering class in a typical year - often over 45%. In that pool, there are a lot of recruited athletes, because Williams is very competitive on the field.

My sense of the process with Vassar, which I’ve been through twice now is that the coaches there really do operate at a disadvantage to schools like Williams and others in the NESCAC, for example. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a factor at Vassar. It most certainly is. One of my kids who was recruited there didn’t have Vassar high on his list so that what that - he’s one who could have rolled in on his own, but with recruiting he was as close to 100% as you get. The other, my daughter, was heavily recruited by the women’s soccer coach - her top priority recruit - but although she has a high ACT score and great rigor (full IB student), her grades were low for Vassar so she wisely used her one ED shot elsewhere. She might have slipped in though … it was just a risk and you only have that one shot. By the time ED II rolls around, the slots are few if any.

[chemusic]

On the Vassar Men’s swimming site: “Vassar Men’s Swimming and Diving Posts Top GPA In All Of Division III”
The Brewer men were ranked No. 1 among Division III teams and second among all of NCAA Divisions with a cumulative grade point average for the fall of 3.59. The second closest team in Division III was Swarthmore College at 3.54, while the University of Rochester ranked second among Liberty League teams at 3.40. The only school in all of NCAA with a higher GPA was University of the Grand Canyon with a 3.68.

This says it all!

[CrewDad]

^
I’m not surpised.

Vassar is not known as some athletic powerhouse, nor do we necessarily want to be known as an athletic powerhouse. We want to be known as an academic powerhouse," said [Senior Associate Director of Admission and Director of Transfer Admission] J C Tesone. The reason Vassar recruits, he says, is “essentially to convince somebody that this is a great place to compete as well as do your academics.”

Tesone emphasizes that athletic recruits are held to the same academic standards as the rest of the applicant pool. Athletes must also fight for the same spots as everyone else; there are no spaces reserved for athletes. The one advantage that student-athletes have is that a Vassar coach can write a recommendation for them, but even this does not provide a tremendous benefit. “The same process goes on for every other area; a member of the music faculty could do the same thing” for an applicant with exceptional musical ability, said Tesone.

http://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/cgi-bin/vassar?a=d&d=miscellany20050916-01.2.45